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Politics Unpacked
Did Sir Nicholas Houghton overstep the mark?
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Philip Webster is joined by Oliver Kamm, Lucy Fisher and Michael Savage.
Oliver Kamm:
Jeremy Corbyn has accused the chief of defence staff, Sir Nicholas Houghton, of political bias for intervening on the question of Britain's nuclear deterrent. The claim is absurd - a measure of the frivolity of Corbyn's own stance rather than any extra-constitutional manoeuvring by the armed forces. Every postwar government has supported Britain's nuclear deterrent and our participation in Nato. That is the policy of the Labour party, regardless of Corbyn's own views. Corbyn's parliamentary colleagues know that the voters will never trust a party that is weak on defence - and they should flatly contradict their leader's whims.
Lucy Fisher:
Britain is facing a crisis of confidence in foreign policy, “sidelined in Syria, ineffective in Ukraine, unwilling in Europe, and inimical towards refugees”. That was the damning verdict of some of the UK’s most senior former diplomats, intelligence officers and academics in a...
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