One tank that is not on its way to Ukraine is Britain’s latest super-tank, the Ajax. It has been more than 10 years in the planning and £5.5bn in the building, but it doesn’t work. Its tracks suffer from speed bumps and its interior keeps injuring its drivers. If I were the mythological warrior Ajax, I would sue for my reputation.
It is nearly a quarter-century since Tony Blair unveiled his doctrine of so-called humanitarian interventionism. This was in support of the UN’s grandiose declaration of a “responsibility to protect” human beings everywhere. As Margaret Thatcher had liberated the Falklanders, so Blair would liberate Kosovans, Iraqis, Afghans and Sierra Leonians. The UK now has military bases in 42 overseas countries, from Oman to Mali, from Kenya to Belize, an outreach shared with no other European state.
