The drumbeats prophesying war are getting louder. Speaking in Berlin this week Mark Rutte, the new Secretary General of Nato, warned that Europe, once again, is staring at a potential conflict “on the scale of war our parents and great-grandparents endured… reaching every home, every workplace. Destruction, mass mobilisation, millions displaced.”

The immediate threat today is from Vladimir Putin . Russia is already on a war footing as it seeks to annex Ukraine by bloody force. The Russian President barely troubles to disguise his ambitions. “We are not planning to go to war with Europe. But if Europe wants to, and starts, we are ready right now”, he menaced unreassuringly at the start of this month.

We – the United Kingdom and our democratic allies on the continent – are not ready f

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