The greatest disaster to emerge from the war in Ukraine would be a collapsed Nato. For the prime minister, Keir Starmer, to be signalling confusion over British missile use shows how much he still has to learn.
Throughout the past two years, Nato’s efforts to avoid an east-west escalation along Russia’s border have been disciplined and impressive. With Vladimir Putin ruthless, unstable and isolated, cool heads have been vital. The muscular posturing of British defence chiefs in the past week – and of Starmer himself – has been senseless. It has merely fed the scepticism towards Nato of the possible next leader of the US, Donald Trump.
