Britain's drinking in the last chance saloon, with a nuclear nightmare at the bottom of our glass

HOW many wake-up calls does it take to stir a slumberer into action, or has rigor mortis already set in?

- LORD DANNATT Former head of the British Army

After Putin's illegal annexation of Crimea, his attack into Ukraine, Donald Trump's ambivalence over US defence support to Europe and now the Republican's support for Israel's attack on Iran, how many wake-up calls does the UK Government need to get serious about defence?

Whether or not there is a ceasefire in Ukraine, Putin will pick his moment to test the strength of NATO by a limited incursion into a member state's territory.

Will all member states fight together to defend Latvia, Lithuania or Estonia? What will be the response from the White House?

Uncertainty and division are the reaction that Putin would love to see, as the cohesion of the West that defeated his beloved Soviet Union and Warsaw Pact in 1989 begins to unravel. Nothing would give this unreconstructed KGB colonel greater pleasure. If the 62 recommendations of the Healey/ Robertson Strategic Defence Review were intended to be the body of the UK's claim to be the leading NATO member in Europe, then Rachel Reeves' spending review has left that body starved of lifeblood and hardly twitching on the floor.

Recent Labour backbench rebellions over welfare cuts have dealt another blow to increasing defence spending any time soon.

I am not alone in fearing that the UK could be drinking in the last chance saloon and what do I see at the bottom of the glass? A potential nuclear nightmare, mass conscription, a reversion from a welfare state and sharp tax rises. To govern is to choose and currently, the wrong choices are being made.

But those that know the cost of everything and the value of nothing can, once again, take a crumb of comfort with Trump apparently prepared to offer Iran negotiations and backing some form of ceasefire in Gaza.

For those who would prefer to hope that something turns up, rather than grapple with and confront a problem, Trump's hard-to-call mood swings might offer some crumbs of comfort.