Catherine Royle

Ok but you need a DSACEUR who is empowered. SACEUR/COM EUCOM spends a lot of time on his US job and this delays decisions in NATO.

They should ask him about last week’s events to see if he has caught up or still knows nothing

Can we spend more on diplomacy and soft power too?
V cheap by comparison to defence and helps avoid armed conflict

I see some sense in letting Europe take the lead.

A 2 tier Europe could help UKR, UK, NOR, Iceland others?

HMG is cutting diplomacy and soft power eg British Council too. What can possibly go wrong?

Seems like a good moment to ensure our foreign policy effort is properly funded and staffed rather than cutting FCDO yet again. If you don’t spend in diplomacy, you end up spending on bullets and with lives

Very confused as to why US needs to take over Greenland to defend its interests. Don’t remember it taking over West Germany to do that during the Cold War. I think that’s the point of the Alliance called NATO.

I’m more worried about Greenland because of what it means for NATO etc. But leaders Iran and Cuba should both be uncomfortable

🚨🚨EMERGENCY EPISODE🚨🚨
Very few people can claim to have met and known 🇻🇪's Maduro, Chavez & interim president Delcy Rodriguez. Well, my guest @catheriner.bsky.social, former 🇬🇧 ambassador in Caracas, is one of them and she spoke to me earlier today.
podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/b...

She didn’t have to start by ruling out customs union or freedom of movement given the narrow result and what was said before the referendum. She put her party before her country

And of course no mention of the human cost - the Argentines now using soup and community kitchens, out of work or whose pensions are now worthless.

A man who has never done anything to make anything better so easy to shout down and ask stupid questions . “Let’s have a bet”about tax rises. Get real

When will #r4today learn we don’t want the attack dog gotcha stuff we want grown up discussion of v complex problems. Grow up Robinson

Moneyboxes next?

It’s not an easy set of circumstances. I really hope you’re right that this is the plan.

To be fair no-one else has much idea either as we have seen since 2014. Or perhaps they know, but are not willing to do it. The risk of RUS using nukes has hovered over everything since 2022. Small risk maybe. But a risk nonetheless. Poor Ukraine.

Great read. Interested in what the few women had to say about why there were there. Does the lack of women mean there is still hope of an outbreak of sanity?

A very good listen. Rory sounded shell shocked to be confronted with inequality being the biggest problem in the UK economy. And seemed to think we could just ape the US. Haven’t we tried that - and failed?

Can’t we aim for sooner? And in all rivers and seas? And if we can’t nationalise can we have contracts that include stopping leaks and building reservoirs as well as banning dividends and bonuses if contracts are breached?

Trojan Horse anyone?

Generous. If everything in the world ran to a bossa nova beat it would probably be less aggressive

Someone needs to tell MoD that they can’t do their stuff without an effective FCDO. Deterrence and conflict are tools to manage political and diplomatic issues. In the end everything is political. And that isn’t MoD’s competence

Nothing against increasing defence spending- although the hard bit is spending it well. But.. the biggest danger is that Russia wins without fighting. Let’s tighten rules on political donations, curb the flow of dirty money, restrict foreign ownership of media, protect our democracy & institutions

I would start with believing in evolution

Of course. But v few people understand what diplomats do - and what good diplomacy can prevent. It’s a skill set that is not v visible - for good reason. But we need to find a way to talk about it

The Diplomatic Service is also underfunded and undervalued. If we want to avoid war rather than fight, then we need to invest in diplomacy. That’s security too

Question for the history buffs. Is Trump 2 more like the dissolution of the monasteries or the Chinese Cultural Revolution of 1967?

But our royals are German…

This was not a calamity. No one died. Lots of people were inconvenienced - including me. Businesses lost money. That’s it