The Ministry of Defence is like a sauna on Sunday. The air circulation system has been switched off and the place is hot—and deserted. Yet when you reach the Secretary of State’s floor, a small team is hard at work. As you enter Michael Fallon’s office, you see the reason why. On an easel sits a map of Iraq and Syria.
Tellingly, though, this isn’t the only map on the stand. Sitting behind it are ones of Pakistan, the Central African Republic and Sierra Leone. It becomes clear as the interview goes on that the one of Ukraine has gone missing.
Fallon is 62, but he has the energy of a man half his age. Our conversation is punctuated with regular requests from him to his staff to bring him a map, a copy of the Nato charter or some other piece of paper. Having finally joined the Cabinet 21 years after he entered parliament, he is determined to make full use of this late flowering of his political career.
Unlike many modern politicians, Fallon doesn’t speak in some Westminster code but plain English.
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