Europe’s emergency is Keir Starmer’s salvation

As chancellor from 1931 , Chamberlain faced the mass unemployment of the Depression , but resisted abandoning Treasury orthodoxy.

As prime minister from 1937 , faced with a rapidly re-arming Germany , he did much the same.

All-out re-armament at speed was unthinkable: it risked deficits, higher tax, inflation, and too much state control over industry.

The threat we face today is not on the scale of 1940 .

Defence Secretary John Healey recently awarded Rolls Royce’s plant in Derby a 9 billion contract for new nuclear reactors for our submarines.

And yesterday ( 18 February ) he unveiled a new defence procurement infrastructure specifically to “re-arm Britain ” The idea that a cynical, disillusioned Britain could pull together against external threats, led by a stronger, more protective state, may seem ludicrous.

Polling suggests Brits are unusually pro-Ukraine , including on the question of sending troops.