Prime Minister Theresa May speaking in the House of Commons in London about the Salisbury attack, March 12, 2018. PA/Press Association. All rights reserved.The controversy over the nerve-agent attack in the southern English city of Salisbury on 4 March is escalating tensions between the United Kingdom and Russia. A by-product is further demands on the Conservative government in London to increase the military budget. Their early fruit is a commitment to build a new chemical-warfare research facility at the key Porton Down laboratory, at a cost of £48 million.
By coincidence this crisis has arisen when parliament’s joint committee on the government's national-security strategy is engaged in its so-called national-security capability review. An unusual and welcome aspect of this review is that it is taking evidence from several groups which contest the priority given to military funding. Instead, they say that the time is right to pose fundamental questions: what security for a state such as the UK should really mean and how it might best be achieved.
To be serious in its purpose, the committee will certainly need to examine three core areas, the last being the most important:
