A core recommendation of the Strategic Defence Review there should be a national conversation on defence and security. Providing a proper strategy and programme, in line with the SDR recommendations, for the conversation to springboard from and be sustained by.

The UK has not had to consider war reaching our shores and skies for many years. We now must. The national conversation is the first step to being ready for the new type of war we see in Ukraine today, and to deter our enemies. It is a core recommendation of the SDR, accepted by the Government, and PM. But time is running out. As a regular citizen who has been to Ukraine, with teenage children, I feel our society is not properly aware and prepared for the risks ahead, and maybe not far ahead.