Victoria Mackarness

The last three and a half years have been a wild ride but it’s time to bring back the experts and #MakePoliticsBoringAgain. My piece for City AM this morning.

Given the understandable focus this weekend on the UK’s lack of air defences, I’m reposting a link to The Wargame podcast Last April, we simulated a Russian ballistic and cruise missile attack on the UK and how a fictional government COBR might respond podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the…

people misunderstand the icarus story. the problem was not that he flew too high. it's that the wings were made of beeswax, which offered very little resistance to heating. with modern materials he would have had no problems. we can fly as close to the sun as we want now

@benmoores2 Honestly so jealous.

Tectonic Defence Summit Austin. Keeping Austin weird - even in defence. If you didnt see the bats already 7pm was a great time last night.

Epic work from the whole team at Kraken 💪

Could not agree more… 👀🚀

Barrons not mincing his words!

@AlexAshWalms @univofstandrews Beautiful picture Alex

It’s Day 5 of voting & my wedding anniversary. @univofstandrews was so special to us both & it was important to marry in Sallies Chapel. Rob would have been my most vocal supporter in the #chancellorianelection. So please do #VoteLadyW if you haven’t already.

Britain is in denial on defence Politicians have not prepared the public for a dangerous new era Today's Morning Call, with @georgeeaton #Echobox=1771342751" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">newstatesman.com/politics/uk-po…

Your Security Clearance doesn't make you James Bond; it just means you get to read boring reports that make you question life choices.

@HugoGye @The_Fence_Mag Nice hat

@The_Fence_Mag catching up with the Forbidden City's only magazine while waiting for Starmer to turn up

@GarethJennings3 Same for the VRM office!

In the Janes office, there's a stampede to the window anytime a Chinook is heard...

Public concern about defence has doubled in a month, making it as big a worry as the NHS and inflation, according to an exclusive poll for @thetimes by @charliehparker thetimes.com/article/fb2097…

To all those who said going self employed gives you a better work life balance - can I have a refund please?

Here we can see the difference between a german and a frenchman solving the same problem:

@owenjbennett @BBCNews Hard disagree. I’m absolutely loving it.

Who is Brooklyn's wife, Nicola Peltz Beckham? bbc.in/4a43j3l

What a mare for the FSB

‘You better not steal attention at my wedding’ Victoria Beckham:

Excl: The UK will open a business centre in Kyiv this year to help smaller defence firms send military hardware to Ukraine It’s part of efforts to integrate their defence industries as Britain starts mass-producing interceptor drones for the country bloomberg.com/news/articles/…

Tempers getting a bit strained but this is the most illustrative exchange. In a nutshell - the current defence equipment programme and the extra ambitions in the defence review are not affordable under the current budget. Options are being considered, from reducing programmes to increasing budgets. Derek Twigg MP keeps pushing Air Chief Marshal Sir Rich Knighton to say that there will have to be cuts to the armed forces unless there is extra money or to admit that there is a shortfall. He refuses to do either but confirms that options are being considered that include cuts. Here is the exchange as best as I could type: CDS is asked if there is any scenario facing the armed forces in which there is not going to be a shortfall in funding. The military chief says: If we want to do everything that is currently in the programme and all the extra things in the SDR the answer is no Derek Twigg (DT), an MP on the @CommonsDefence: We are talking about cuts to programmes... CDS: What you have to do is make some judgement of what you prioritise - how big the contingencies are going to be DT: You really don't want to use the word cuts but really we are talking about reducing programmes, changing programmes, putting programmes back CDS: All of those things are options under consideration but so is the level of ambition we might take and these are straight forward facts DT: Without doing that there is no way you can avoid a funding shortfall CDS: That is not what I am saying you just put words in my mouth. What I said is could we deliver the whole of the programme we currently have and do all of things we want to in SDR with the money we have got - no DT: You would make cuts? CDS: There are a whole bunch of things that are not in the programme. You have choice over how quickly you want to do them