in his speech in the lords, lord robertson warned that the world was now seeing a bonfire of the post—coldinties. he told peers he'd recently been asked what was the biggest threat to the safety and security of the uk and the list of potential answers was a long one. i considered some of the immediate and looming challenges and threats that there are, and some of them are pretty formidable. migration flows, which have suddenly ended up on our shores, the spread of religious extremism and jihadi violence plumbing new depths of savagery, a restive and resurgent russia, a rising china and the disruption of north korea. and then, on top of all of that, there is the rise and dominance of organised crime, population growth, pandemics and financial instability. that's a pretty formidable cocktail of trouble for us to face. but my answer to the question of what was the greatest threat is actually different. it is ourselves. we are our own worst enemies. we are short—sighted, penny—pinching, naively optimistic, we are complacent and we're ostrich—like to the way in which the world is becoming inter

in his speech in the lords, lord robertson warned the world was now seeing a "bonfire of the post coldtly been asked what was the biggest threat to the safety and security of the uk and the list of potential answers was a long one. migration flows, the spread ofjihad the violence, spreading savagery. a rising china, and the destruction of north korea. but my answer to the question of what is the greatest threat is actually different. it is ourselves. we are oui’ own threat is actually different. it is ourselves. we are our own worst enemies. we are shortsighted, pennypinching, naively optimistic, complacent, to the way in which the world has become more interconnected, fragile, unpredictable. he moved on to the election of donald trump as us president. the donald, with his mexican wall, with new protectionism and isolationism, with his serious questioning of nato solidarity, with a belief in torture, and with the te na nt a belief in torture, and with the tenant general michael flynn as his chief security advisers —— lieutenant—general michael flynn. perhaps we don't need more enemies

in his speech in the lords, lord robertson warned the world was now seeing a "bonfire of the post cold'd recently been asked what was the biggest threat to the safety and security of the uk and the list of potential answers was a long one. i considered some of the immediate and looming threats and challenges. some of them are pretty formidable. migration flows which have suddenly ended up on our shores. the spread of religious extremism and jihadi violence plumbing new depths of savagery. a resurgent russia. a rising china. and the disruption of north korea. but my answer to the question of what is the greatest threat, it is ourselves, we are ur own worst enemies. it is ourselves, we are oui’ own worst enemies. we are shortsighted, penny pinching, naively optimistic, we're complacent, and we are ostrich like to the way in which the world has become interconnected, more fragile, and more unpredictable. and donald, with his mexican wall, with new protectionism and donald, with a serious questioning of nato solidarity, with a belief in torture and with lieutenant general michael flynn as

opening a debate on the uk's armed forces capability the labour former defence secretary, lord robertsontitude to nato. he moved on to the election of donald trump as us president. a former conservative defence secretary was one of many to raise fears about russia. we don't even need more enemies in the world today. i hope that putin and his colleagues realise how easily accidents can happen. we then have to have the members of our first world war. wars were started at the wrong time. in the face of a russian ambition, europeans can no longer get their defence on the cheap. it is an interesting reflection that whereas the word burden sharing is to be used when i went to washington, now the assessment of europe's contribution is, shall we say, expressed in less suitable terms for a debate of this kind. we lack strength in numbers. we are not well placed to deal with the inevitable, least of all against a capable phone. —— foe source of the more independently minded we become, the two must go together. defence money is going up. when defence spending will increase by 5 billion over this pa