Sunak was right: we need to bring back national service

The name Lossiemouth is from another era. The home of the main RAF base in the north of Scotland was a legendary bastion of UK and Nato defences during the Cold War.

- MARY DEJEVSKY

Then suddenly - or so it seems - there it was in yesterday's news, in from the cold, the backdrop for the prime minister and his Norwegian counterpart to celebrate a new bilateral agreement on joint operations designed to track Russian submarines with sights on our undersea cables.

This was the morning after the King had hosted a state banquet for the German president, where he had spoken of the UK and Germany being determined to "stand with Ukraine and bolster Europe against the threat of further Russian aggression". If there is one thing the Brits know, it is how to put on a show.

But, if anything, a year and a half of this government has seen national defence fall further down the pecking order of priorities. Any reference to defence in last month's otherwise much-trailed and debated Budget was conspicuous by its absence. Spending on all sorts is going up, but there are no extra pounds for defence, beyond the modest amounts already pledged.

This leaves an increasing mismatch between the UK's Cold War reputation as the most powerful military player among European countries - something a general lack of curiosity has allowed it to somehow retain - and reality.

The UK, in fact, ceded the laurels of biggest European contributor to Nato in cash terms last year to Germany - although the UK still leads in terms of percentage of GDP. If current pledges are to be honoured, however, Germany will soon overtake the UK here, too.