Mark Hennessy
speaker
218 appearances
2 recordings
2 series
first heard May 2026
last heard 26 Jun
Mark Hennessy’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
Trend
recordings per month · last 12 monthsRecordings per month over the last 12 months — 2 in all, peaking in Jun 2026 with 1.
Appearances
the UK faces huge international challenges.
It's got a defence budget.
We saw a defence secretary quitting because he couldn't get money to make the changes that he needs.
You have a country that is still dealing with the fact that it has never emotionally or any other way accepted the fact that it is no longer a major power.
It is at best a mid-European power and that's not going to change.
But that instinctively has not been understood within the British body politic
or indeed amongst the public at large.
There is still this almost instinctive position that it is a world player.
It is not.
It hasn't been since before Suez, and it certainly hasn't been in the aftermath of Brexit.
Now,
On the other hand, there are things that could be done in terms of closer cooperation with Europe on security issues and all of that, which would be extremely valuable for Europe as a whole in terms of presenting a stronger face to Moscow and elsewhere.
And that is something that he could lead on if he makes the effort to go and talk to every capital to try and get better value for defence spending.
But
He has challenges on every front.
He's not going to be able to change the face of the Labour government.
OK, you know, Rachel Reeves doesn't seem like she's got a prayer of staying in the Treasury as Chancellor.
There'll have to be other changes.
Well, as of now, that's the gossip.
But if he does that, then he's bringing a toxic flame onto his government from the very start, because there's large parts of the British right wing press who hated Miliband today as much as they did 10 years ago.
Showing 81–100 of 218 · page 5 of 11
← Previous
Next →