The Wargame - episode two: Armed Attack
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Hostilities with Russia erupt into an unprecedented attack. The prime minister and his team scramble to respond. Will the UK's allies choose to help them?
A major five-part series from Sky News and Tortoise imagines how a Russian attack on the UK could play out - and invites real-life former ministers, military chiefs and other experts to figure out how to defend the country.
Written and presented by Sky News' security and defence editor, Deborah Haynes.
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Telegraph
8 minutes ago
- Telegraph
Diane Abbott is pushing the Left's biggest myth about immigration
The Labour Left were always bound to loathe Sir Keir Starmer's recent speech about the downsides of mass immigration. All the same, one of their objections to it strikes me as somewhat peculiar. At a rally on Saturday, the veteran Labour MP Diane Abbott thundered that Sir Keir's speech was 'nonsense' – because, as she stoutly reminded her audience, 'immigrants built this land'. Stirring stuff. I can see only one small problem. It's not strictly true, is it? Clearly Ms Abbott disagrees. Indeed, she proudly declared that her own parents 'helped to build this country'. As she herself acknowledged, though, they only arrived here from Jamaica in the 1950s. What precisely does Ms Abbott think Britain looked like, before her parents' ship pulled in? A barren, primitive, uncivilised wilderness, whose humble natives dwelt in bushes and subsisted on nettles and raw shrew? Did her parents look around, sigh, and then patiently set about erecting St Paul's Cathedral and Blenheim Palace? I'm not convinced that they did. In fact, I'm reasonably sure that most of this country was built a fair bit earlier, largely by people who were born in it. This is because, until quite recently, only a very small percentage of the population was born abroad. Between 1951 and 2001, the average annual net immigration figure was 7,800. In 2023, by contrast, it was 906,000. It doesn't take a mathematician of Ms Abbott's stature to recognise that this is quite a sharp increase. Still, I don't mean to pick on her. She's far from alone. In recent years, any number of Left-wing politicians and pundits have taken to pushing the line that 'immigrants built Britain'. On last week's edition of the BBC's Question Time, for example, the retired trade union leader Mark Serwotka informed viewers that Britain is only 'the great country it is because of centuries of immigration'. From the Left's point of view, I suppose I can see this tactic's advantages. Any time a voter dares suggest that net immigration of almost a million a year is a touch on the high side, and possibly not entirely sustainable in the longer term, shut them up by telling them that a) it's always been like this, and b) they should be grateful. The risk, though, is that some voters might feel a tiny bit insulted. Because the claim that 'immigrants built Britain' implies that the natives were so ignorant, lazy and useless, they achieved nothing until their superiors arrived from abroad to lift them out of savagery. Come to think of it, I'm reasonably sure that the Left used to have a word for that type of attitude. It was 'colonialism'. If you want a picture of the present... It was a bright cold day in June, and Winston Smith had just sat down at his desk in the Ministry of Truth. This morning he had an important job to do. A dangerous book urgently needed to be memory-holed. It was entitled Nineteen Eighty-Four. For decades, Nineteen Eighty-Four had been acclaimed as a landmark work of literature. Suddenly, however, it had been found to contain the most sickening thoughtcrime. The person who had made this shocking discovery was an American novelist named Dolen Perkins-Valdez. In a foreword she'd been commissioned to write for the book's latest edition, she declared that its main character exhibited attitudes towards women that were appallingly 'problematic'. Not only that, but the book didn't feature any characters who were black. 'A sliver of connection can be difficult for someone like me to find,' she wrote, 'in a novel that does not speak much to race and ethnicity.' Privately, Winston suspected that the reason the book did not speak much to race and ethnicity was that it had been written on a Scottish island by an Edwardian Englishman in the late 1940s. That was probably also the reason why none of its characters identified as genderqueer or pansexual, and why none of them had glued their buttocks to the M25 in support of puberty blockers for Palestine. But it was not Winston's place to make excuses for crimethink. In any case, he was used to such tasks. Not long ago he had been presented with the complete works of a children's author named Roald Dahl, and ordered to replace the entire text of each book with the endlessly repeated phrase 'BE KIND'. Had it been up to him, Winston would have been perfectly willing to rectify the text of Nineteen Eighty-Four, until all traces of crimethink had been eliminated. He could have ensured that it contained the correct number of characters who were 2SLGBTQIA+, neurodivergent or of Colour, and that they all expressed the officially mandated opinions about Islamophobia and net zero. The Ministry, however, had decided that there was no time. Better just to drop the offending object down the memory hole, and move swiftly on to his next task. This one was going to be tough. According to reports, there was a new TV adaptation of Harry Potter on the way, and the cast had completely failed to denounce JK Rowling. Winston had a lot of unpersoning to do.
BBC News
11 minutes ago
- BBC News
Thamesmead Waterfront: The London site with room for 15,000 homes
They are two vast sites on the banks of the Thames in east London and you probably haven't heard about the chances are you might are huge development areas called Thamesmead Waterfront and Beckton Riverside. Both are brownfield sites and are earmarked for huge housing developments of thousands of homes, shops and problem is these are among the few areas in London without a rail or Tube link and that is stalling the developers and the mayor want is a commitment from government to an extension of the Dockland Light Railway (DLR).Could that happen in the chancellor's Spending Review? Ed Mayes is the executive director for development at Lendlease, which will develop the Thamesmead site."Our priority for Thamesmead in particular is the DLR extension. We have already got commitment from the mayor and there is commitment from Tfl for the initial stage of funding," he told BBC London. "But what we really need is a government commitment that subject to that initial stage of work they are willing to help fund the actual delivery of the DLR."He says a transport link is crucial."It's been proven across London that transport infrastructure unlocks delivery of homes; that's happened with the Jubilee line and the Elizabeth line, it will continue to happen."This is an area of London that has amazing potential: there could be 15,000 homes at Thamesmead Waterfront, another 15,000 on the north of the river in Beckton - all unlocked by that extension."In addition, there's future potential if it was extended in the future. That will unlock homes, much-needed affordable homes for London, but also the jobs and enterprise that comes with that." It is perhaps no surprise that London Mayor Sir Sadiq Khan is framing what transport infrastructure he wants in terms of course, creating housing through transport links is not a new idea in the capital. Just one example is the Metropolitan line creating the suburbs in the north west of London dubbed "Metroland".Today, the main projects on the City Hall wish list are the DLR extension to Beckton Riverside and Thamesmead Waterfront, the Bakerloo extension and the West London of them link areas where thousands of homes could be links do not come cheap though and are beyond the realms of Tfl's budget and so funding would have to come from government.A DLR link to Thamesmead would cost about £1.5bn and involve a tunnel under the Hall said in a statement: "The mayor wants to work in partnership with government to support the national growth agenda. With the right investment and devolution of powers, there is a huge opportunity to unlock growth; create new jobs; attract international investment; and ensure London contributes more to the national economy and the Exchequer's finances." Just down the road from Thamesmead is Abbey Wood. It got an Elizabeth line station three years ago. Once known as the cheapest postcode in London, the area is Lewis is executive director for sustainable places at Peabody, which developed the Southmere Lake site in Abbey Wood. "I think in any part of London that's changing, if there hasn't been an established market or people don't know the area, you need to give some confidence, you need a reason to come and visit," he said. "I think with the arrival of the Elizabeth line, people really understood that it was a new area opening up to a lot of Londoners so we saw people from east London coming here to visit for the first time and recognise all the open areas and green space."People started to recognise this was somewhere they wanted to view and ultimately move to."There have been objections to the Southmere Lake redevelopment, though, with opponents saying some of the homes demolished to make way for it should instead have been refurbished. As regards Thamesmead Waterfront, a project he is also involved in, Mr Lewis says transport infrastructure is critical."I think what's really exciting about the Waterfront is 100 hectares of land that's hardly been developed at all. In London terms that's unheard of."You have two kilometres of the waterfront of the Thames and we have got the capacity to get 15,000 homes built and a million square feet of other uses. "It would be a new neighbourhood for London, but the critical thing we need to make that happen is the arrival of excellent public transport - which is bringing the DLR over to Thamesmead." The government's target is to build 1.5 million new homes by if London can't deliver a large number of new homes, there is little chance the government will hit that number. To do that, it will mean transport infrastructure being funded to reach the undeveloped sites in Thamesmead and Beckton.
Reuters
25 minutes ago
- Reuters
Ukraine's drone attacks temporarily halt flights in Moscow, across Russia
June 10 (Reuters) - Ukraine's overnight drone strikes have forced a temporary suspension of flights in all airports serving Moscow and the country's second-largest city St. Petersburg, but caused no damage, Russian officials reported on Tuesday. Russian air defence units destroyed a total of 102 Ukrainian drones overnight, the Russian defence ministry - which reports only how many were downed, not the number Ukraine launched - said on the Telegram messaging app. Nearly half of the drones were destroyed over the Bryansk region that borders Ukraine, the ministry said. Three drones were downed over the Moscow region and two over the Leningrad region, of which St. Petersburg is the regional capital. Russia's civil aviation authority Rosaviatsia temporarily halted flights at all four major airports serving Moscow and St. Petersburg's Pulkovo Airport, as well as at airports in nine other cities to ensure safety, it said on Telegram. Flights in Moscow and some other cities were restored by Tuesday morning, but restrictions were still in place in St. Petersburg at 0430 GMT. Regional governors, who wrote about the attacks on Telegram, did not report any damage caused by the attacks.
