What we need to talk about

As readers of this blog know I rarely, if at all, discuss details of defence, leaving all that to the Boss on EUReferendum who knows a great deal about it whereas to me toys are toys are toys. However, it so happens, that I spent yesterday evening with a number of people to whom defence matters a great deal and we, naturally, talked about the forthcoming SDSR (Strategic Defence Spending Review), which, it is rumoured, will be coming out in sections rather as one whole document.

We all agreed (as does the Boss of EURef) that you cannot have a defence review until you have a serious discussion on foreign policy. What exactly is Britain's foreign policy? Does it have one? Given that we now have a government that, apparently, "doesn't do foreign" and to whom a strategic alliance with China is a perfectly sensible idea because it's a large country in the East, whose economy is growing and, therefore, no different from India.

The real problem is one we all know and understand. Given that membership of the EU means further integration into the institutions of the common foreign and security policy (CFSP) though such a policy in reality cannot exist as there are no common interests, a discussion about British foreign policy has to start with a discussion about the EU and Britain's membership in it. Forget about a referendum. We cannot have one until we have brought out into the open all the implications of our membership and non-membership. And up with that our politicians will not put. So, we might have to do it ourselves, spreading the word as best we can.