Keir Starmer’s welcome embrace of realism

Sixty-five years ago, a British Prime Minister acknowledged that a new world order was coming to pass and that it was time to lay down a burden the country could, and should, no longer shoulder. Harold Macmillan’s ‘wind of change’ speech in Cape Town signalled the eclipse of empire, the retreat of Britain from imperial pretensions and a new age of nationalism in Africa.

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Today, our own Prime Minister has trimmed his sails to catch a very different wind of change. He is navigating a new path – necessitated by the impact of Storm Donald from across the Atlantic. Sir Keir Starmer has indicated that Britain is willing to bear new burdens, shoulder graver responsibilities and prepare for a new era of realism across the globe.

The government’s decision to increase defence expenditure, setting the country on a path of rearmament and military expansion, is a remarkable turnaround for Labour – all the more so when that spending is being paid for by cuts in international development aid. It is hard to think of a more dramatic departure from Jeremy Corbyn’s time. Only five years ago, Labour was led by a Nato-sceptic, unilaterally disarming pacifist. Now, the Prime Minister, even though he served in Corbyn’s shadow cabinet, prefers to see himself in the tradition of Clement Attlee and Ernest Bevin – the architects of Nato, builders of Britain as a nuclear power and muscular defenders of western democracy.

There are, of course, questions about the scale, nature and coherence of Labour’s Bevinite turn. Is the increase sufficient to modernise and upgrade our creaking defence architecture? Our ageing submarine fleet, depleted complement of battle tanks and thinned-out infantry ranks may need levels of investment beyond those to which the government is now committed.