Just over four years ago, on 23 November 2015, the
Conservative Government published its near-100 page long ‘National Security
Strategy’ (NSS) and ‘Strategic Defence and Security Review 2015.’ (NSDR) (https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/478933/52309_Cm_9161_NSS_SD_Review_web_only.pdf)
The Prime Minister at
the time, David Cameron, asserted, inter alia, in his personal foreword:
“We will continue to harness all the tools of
national power available to us, coordinated through the National Security
Council, to deliver a ‘full-spectrum approach’… Britain’s safety and security
depends not just on our own efforts, but on working hand in glove with our
allies to deal with the common threats that face us all, from terrorism to
climate change…. History teaches us that no government can predict the future.
We have no way of knowing precisely what course events will take over the next
five years: we must expect the unexpected. But we can make sure that we have
the versatility and the means to respond to new risks and threats to our
security as they arise.”
The
report states on page10:
“We have organised delivery of
our National Security Strategy through three high-level, enduring and mutually
supporting National Security Objectives. These embody an integrated,
whole-of-government approach, supported by greater innovation and efficiency.”
Paragraph 3.3 on page 15 lists
the “Four
particular challenges are likely to drive UK security priorities for the coming
decade. They have both immediate and longer-term implications:
i.
The increasing threat posed by terrorism, extremism and instability.
ii.
The resurgence of state-based threats; and intensifying wider state
competition.
iii.
The impact of technology, especially cyber threats; and wider technological
developments.
iv.
The erosion of the rules-based international order, making it harder to build
consensus and tackle global threats.
No
mention of a virus-based threat. Then,
on page 17, it finally states:
“The emergence and
spread of microbes with the potential to cause pandemics and the rise of drug
resistance, including Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR), are significant concerns.
They will require greater and more coordinated action at local, national,
regional and global levels. No single nation can act alone on such
transnational threats.”
and asserts:
“The UK has taken a leadership role, building
international partnerships to tackle AMR and other risks to global health
security.”
Really?
It has been noticeable over the
past here weeks the UK has been an outrider in Europe in taking its own
strategy, clearly unco-cordinated with our neighbours in the developing the
counter-Covid19 policy.
The main response of the
Conservative Government to its perceived
security threats has been to invest vast sums of scarce taxpayers’ money military hardware,
including in a Trident nuclear WMD
system - probably £205,000,000,000 (£205 billion) over tits
projected sixty year operational lifetime -
with no possibility any prime minister could possibly use it without
committing national suicide.
The
National Security Strategy also claimed:
“We have detailed, robust and
comprehensive plans in place and the necessary capacity to deal with infectious
diseases, including pandemic influenza and respiratory diseases. As a result of
the Ebola outbreak in West Africa, we have further refined the measures we take
to safeguard public health.”
It added briefly at page 68,
asserting:
Para: 5.138 “We have
established a £20 million UK Vaccines Network to bring together the best
expertise from academia, philanthropic organisations and industry for
developing and trialling new vaccines for infectious diseases. We will invest
further in the UK Vaccines Network up to 2020.”
5.139 “We will also
invest in new, large-scale research and development to combat the world’s
deadliest diseases. These include diseases with epidemic potential….”
It promised to publish a
national bio-security strategy in 2016. This finally was issued – as a 48 page
paper - in late July 2018. (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/biological-security-strategy)
It opens with the following
prophetic and chilling words from the then Security minister, Ben Wallace, now
Defence Secretary:
“Significant outbreaks of disease
are among the highest impact risks faced by any society – threatening lives and
causing disruption to public services and the economy. This is true whether
such outbreaks occur naturally, such as pandemic influenza or emerging
infectious diseases, or in the less likely event of a disease being caused by
an accidental release from scientific or industrial facilities, or as the
result of a deliberate biological attack.”
Empty words followed if recent
experience is anything to go by, when Wallace asserted:
….“we are exposed to these risks,
both at home and overseas, but it also gives us the opportunity to work with
international partners to tackle such threats at source.”
If
only!
Wallace
concluded :
We cannot predict all the ways in
which this risk landscape will evolve in the future, but it is by breaking down
barriers, working in a co-ordinated way across and beyond Government, and
thinking globally that we will be best prepared to meet the threat of
significant disease outbreaks (however they occur).”
But ministers and their advisors have made a
complete pig’s ear of the response, promoting very narrow overly natural
science reaction that ignores the wider societal dimensions of the problem, and
exclude inputs from social scientists including geographers, sociologists,
social psychologists and social anthropologists - each expert specialism an
anathema to Conservative politicians
Meanwhile, Home Secretary Priti
Patel, for whom the Coronavirus crisis
has - temporarily - saved her political
skin, quietly released a policy
statement to Parliament on 17 March on ‘Counter State Based Threats (’https://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/written-questions-answers-statements/written-statement/Commons/2020-03-17/HCWS165/
) in which she asserts:
“We face sustained and hostile activity which is
deliberate and targeted and intended to threaten our national security.
Together with our allies, we are taking steps to safeguard our open and
democratic societies and promote the international rules-based system that
underpins our stability, security and prosperity.”
But no mention of viral
attacks! Has she opened her eyes or ears in the past three weeks? To where has
joined-up Government disappeared?
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