The proper response to separatist stonewalling is doubling down, not backing down, on positive, pro-active British policymaking.
There are many areas, not least small boats in the Channel, where the UK needs a strong working relationship with France.
The AUKUS alliance will merely push away France, which has been one of the most sanguine countries to oppose China’s influence.
The Business Secretary needs to review the mesh of subsidies, regulations, penalty taxes and import arrangements that passes for an energy policy.
Putin’s Russia is closer to home – remember the Salisbury attack – and Islamist extremism is already here.
The deal sends a starkly clear message to China – and will reassure India, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan that their security interests are also British interests.
The three countries will work “hand-in-glove to preserve security and stability in the Indo-Pacific” (i.e: to contain China).
“A hard deadline signalled to the Taliban it was a waiting game until the 31st of August,” adds Nandy.
It would seem to compound an injustice to invite these Afghans to join the back of the queue for resettlement assistance.
Mainly because people didn’t want troops to be there (or in the Middle East) in the first place.
Anti-corruption and cementing new treaties should take precedence over softer fashionable favourites.