The authors of last year’s defence review have warned that the British public fails to understand it is already experiencing the early stages of conflict, because people associate war with missiles and kinetic attacks rather than the cyberattacks, infrastructure threats and supply chain disruptions that are already targeting the country on a daily basis.
Dr Fiona Hill, who co-authored the review, told the Joint Committee on the National Security Strategy that this was a fundamental failure of narrative. “When you say that Russia has declared war on Europe, people think that war is actually only something kinetic in the sense of missiles flying, ballistic missiles, the kinds of things that we are seeing in both the case of the US and Israel’s attack on Iran and Russia’s attack on Ukraine,” she said.
“They are not thinking of those very things we are already facing. That is honestly a fault of the narrative about the kinds of warlike and wartime scenarios we are facing.”
Hill told MPs the scale of ongoing attacks was significant, saying there were tens of thousands of cyberattacks on a daily or sometimes weekly basis, risks to critical national infrastructure, attacks on undersea cables and vulnerability to the gas pipeline from Norway to the UK. She pointed to the closure of the Strait of Hormuz as an example of how quickly supply chains that most of daily life depended on could be disrupted. “It would be very easy to have most of daily life brought to a halt, but that is not being explained to the British public,” she said.
Lord Robertson of Port Ellen, who led the review, agreed that complacency was widespread and not limited to government. “There is a belief that we are safe. We have a moat around the British Isles; we are a long way from trouble; we do not think that we could possibly be attacked,” he told the committee, adding that day by day cyberattacks and attacks on undersea cables were happening. “It would be horrible to think that it would take an actual crisis, an actual attack on the United Kingdom, before we woke up to the kinds of threats that are facing us,” he said.
Hill also addressed the shifting posture of the United States, warning that the defence review had factored in a change in American behaviour regardless of who won the 2024 election, with the US no longer wanting to take the lead in providing for European defence. President Trump, she said, had “simply ripped off the Band-Aid here and gone basically to dark in terms of support for the transatlantic alliances, just much quicker than one might have anticipated”, describing his current approach as unconstrained and uninhibited in a way his first term had not been.
It’s a bloody good job there are “Experts” to tell us.
Who the hell would have thought ?
Might be happier with the comments of said experts if we were swimming in missiles. Clearly we need defences in quantity (of all types).
We need, also, to make a HUGE note that we ARE now involved in this War in the Gulf against IRAN. Originally the attack was made by the U.S./Israel Alliance. Starmer was right, then, to say, in effect “We were not informed or consulted, This is NOT our fight”. As soon as Iran began targetting our Allies in the Gulf, culminating in the CLOSURE of Free Traffic in the Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz, we SHOULD have declared war ourselves, and Mobilized immediately, to be ready for DIRECT CONFLICT on our Shores. What are we waiting for – the effects are already apparent, and we do not know what is coming NEXT, apart from obvious shortages and rampant inflation. WHY have we not started conscription and mobilised our Navy, Army and AirForce on a War Footing! IRAN has the weaponry to spread this conflict far and wide!
“We are too late, Mr Mannering, too late”!!!
Had to look It up.
“Chattering Lory” a forest dwelling Parrott from Indonesia, possibly an endangered species. Mostly Red In Colour.
Well anyway, welcome to the cradle of love, the font of all knowledge and home to the lonely.
Tku. My Daughter in Law on Honeymoon with our son in Indonesia 16 years ago this month, saw it, & it gave her a chuckle. Oddly, no-one else commented until you, so thanks for noticing!
Laurie, we have only ever initiated conscription before or near the start of a world war.
Nonetheless, we have been caught “with our pants down”, hopelessly unprepared for even a small invasion “somewhere” where use of a Nuclear missile would be inappropriate, not even able to properly maintain a Carrier “Battlegroup” for availability in both major Sea Areas of, say, the Atlantic/Indian and the Pacific Oceans supporting our Commonwealth Of Nations in case of Natural Disaster or Conflict. Why not? Rotating Able personell Annually through Army/Navy/Airforce/Medics instruction say once every 4/5 years would see us ready for anything we could handle! Joking aside, we have let things slide very badly.Why have we, seemingly, been afraid the bring up our offspring totally unable to defend themselves and their families from ANY Conflict? Are we nuts?
What is hidden is hard to re-animate in the public mind. Big ,solidly made stuff tends to reassure. However, a younger percentile of the population might be more mindful. To myself , it is another reminder that we are as developed nation (and we still are such) have de-skilled ourselves to the extent that everything involves a keyboard and dots ona screen. I wonder if we might try to revive practical tangible skills. Think of that ‘Bicycle Repair Man’ sketch in Monty Python; in the land of the Caped Crusaders and man in a boiler suit armed with spanners is king.
Ha, As an old man who frequently wears a boiler suit and often can be found with a Tool In my hand, I can quite relate to that !
Actually the public have been aware for quiet sometime. They just get ignored by politicians and their experts.
Indeed. It isn’t the British people who don’t understand, it is the British Government, starting with the PM. Thwy are the ones who need to wake up and smell the coffee.