Years of complacency, underpinned by a delusion that the rest of the world sees things as we do has been shattered according to Baron David Frost in this weekend’s Telegraph, shaking our cherished beliefs to their very core:
“The fantasy that every country saw things as we did, that diplomacy was best conducted by posturing and virtue-signalling, and that deference to international institutions was the best solution to every problem.
It is this elegant but dysfunctional and feebly underpinned intellectual edifice that has finally come crashing down under the onslaught of Russian tanks.”
What Baron Frost calls ‘performative diplomacy’ has now to be replaced by hard choices and determined action:
“We must get serious about energy security and that must now mean we lift the moratorium on shale gas. We are going to have to spend more on defence and that will mean tough choices. We need to reform and liberalise so that investment keeps coming. The tax increases planned for April look ever more risky and should surely now be deferred.
In short, we need a sense of priorities. Banning “buy one get one free” deals and conversion therapy might have to wait.
The lesson we must take is that the world is dangerous. There are people who want to harm us. We must not pretend the world is something it is not and we must act accordingly.”
The full article can be read here with a link to the original beneath:
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