Victoria Mackarness

Defence, politics and anything else that takes my fancy. Occasionally have enough opinions to ask people to print them.

[Victoria Mackarness @Tor_Mackarness]

The last three and a half years have been a wild ride but it’s time to bring back the experts and #MakePoliticsBoringAgain. My piece for City AM this morning.

[City A.M. @CityAM]

From climate change to the Iran crisis, we need to bring back the experts https://t.co/7qsHufYfx0

[Victoria Mackarness @Tor_Mackarness]

"The government's communications strategy has been a complete failure". This article from 2020 wasn't meant to be evergreen...

https://t.co/EvJMF9kiz9

[Elad Simchayoff @Elad_Si]

A: Hello, I wanted to check why my rubbish wasn’t collected today?

B: I’m sorry about that, sir, but I can assure you that we’re working hard to globalise the intifada.

[Victoria Mackarness @Tor_Mackarness]

Iconic

[Mike Tapp MP @MikeTappTweets]

@PoliticsJOE_UK Bore off.

[Louis Mosley @louismosley]

@ZackPolanski - this is magnificent. Three things I can’t deny:

1. It is a video.
2. You are wearing a jacket.
3. Then you aren’t.
4. Then you are again.

Unfortunately that’s where the accuracy ends.

A few corrections for you:

Peter Thiel is not our CEO. Alex Karp is — and has been for 20+ years. (A lifelong Democrat, for anyone keeping score.)

We are not a “spyware company.” Spyware is malware. Malware is illegal. Calling a software company spyware is, technically, defamatory (don’t worry, we are not suing).

We don’t build surveillance technology. We build software that helps organisations make sense of data they already hold. Not the same thing.

There was no “private tour” of our HQ. There was a public photocall to which the media came. Hence, why there are so many pictures of the event.

Our MOD contract is not “the biggest defence contract in UK history.” Ajax armoured vehicles = £5.5bn. Dreadnought submarines = £31bn. We’re grateful for the work, but let’s keep a sense of scale.

We have no more access to NHS data than Microsoft has to the contents of your Word documents. I think you know this by now.

We don’t have access to patient medical records. Same story.

I agree that “nothing matters more than our health.” Which makes it worth reminding you of what Palantir’s software is actually doing in the NHS right now:

->110,000 additional operations
->15% fewer delayed hospital discharges
->7% more patients finding out within 28 days whether they have cancer

Respect again for what you did with that jacket.

[Drew Pavlou 🇦🇺🇺🇸🇺🇦🇹🇼 @DrewPavlou]

“As a local councillor I will take the necessary steps to uphold the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people”

Bro your job is to focus on local bin collections

[Deborah Haynes @haynesdeborah]

🚨Lord George Robertson - a former Labour defence secretary who wrote the prime minister’s defence review - just made a hugely consequential intervention🚨

He wants to trigger a national conversation on the need for the UK to rebuild its defences. And he wants words by the government about boosting defence spending to become far more urgent and decisive action. Defence also needs to become a cross- party issue as these perilous times mean political point scoring is a luxury we can’t afford.

Here are some main points.

As well as talking about Sir Keir Starmer’s “corrosive complacency” on defence and that the UK is underprepared for war, Lord George Robertson in his speech:

🚨Directly calls out the prime minister for failing to match his pledges to rearm with the money to make it happen. For example, he notes how the PM wrote in a newspaper article about how the Iran war needs to be a line in the sand for the UK to strengthen its defences but Lord Robertson says “the wherewithal to make all of this happen was absent”

🚨He urges for defence to become an all of country issue, to take the politics out of it and for all political parties to work together. “There is an urgency about the threat which renders political point scoring to be a dangerous luxury”.

🚨He makes a strong case to switch funding away from welfare and into warfare. Lord Robertson says welfare spending is 5x that of defence. “Are we certain that this is the right priority - jeopardising safety and security whilst maintaining an increasingly unsustainable welfare bill?”

🚨He underlines that NATO has said Russia could be ready to use military force against the alliance by the end of the decade - that is just three years away. “That is a very short period of time and it should scare us all”… “That is sobering and frightening by any standard”

🚨He says this call to transform the armed forces is about so much more than investing in more warships and jets. It is about much wider readiness. “We are simply not ready. We need to rebuild our readiness in order to deter and possible adversary.

🚨Deterrence is much cheaper than war. The UK paid off its final debt from World War 2 in 2016 - when it was on the winning side!

🚨Lord Robertson says the government needs to abandon the “lethargic thought process of the post Cold War” era and instead get onto a proper war footing like Ukraine

🚨Finally, Lord Robertson says there has to be a national conversation on defence - something that Sir Keir Starmer said would happen 18 months ago. The public needs to understand the threat and to realise that there will have to be some difficult spending choices made for the UK genuinely to bolster its security in a “very very turbulent world”.

🚨He finishes by saying: “We need the whole country to wake up. The clock is ticking”

[John Healey @JohnHealey_MP]

Our national security and our economic resilience are directly linked.

This government, our Armed Forces and industry are working together to meet the challenge head on.

As always, a privilege to be at the @LondonDefConf today👇

[Tim Robinson @RAeSTimR]

News from UK's Cambridge Aerospace which says it will be delivering a 'significant number' of low-cost Skyhammer air defence systems to UK MoD from May. Skyhammer - optimised for counter-Shahed role - has a range of 30km with a top speed of 700km/h #avgeek

[Victoria Mackarness @Tor_Mackarness]

💥

[Deborah Haynes @haynesdeborah]

The defence secretary announces a new air defence contract with Cambridge Aerospace to deliver “hundreds of new missiles and launchers” for the UK and its allies “within weeks”

[Deborah Haynes @haynesdeborah]

Given the understandable focus this weekend on the UK’s lack of air defences, I’m reposting a link to The Wargame podcast

Last April, we simulated a Russian ballistic and cruise missile attack on the UK and how a fictional government COBR might respond

https://t.co/7Zvq7Z8jnB

[sigfig @sigfig]

people misunderstand the icarus story. the problem was not that he flew too high. it's that the wings were made of beeswax, which offered very little resistance to heating. with modern materials he would have had no problems. we can fly as close to the sun as we want now

[Victoria Mackarness @Tor_Mackarness]

@benmoores2 Honestly so jealous.

[Victoria Mackarness @Tor_Mackarness]

Epic work from the whole team at Kraken 💪

[Royal Navy @RoyalNavy]

The #RoyalNavy is buying 20 crewless boats as we look to build on our ability to merge both crewed and uncrewed forces. Delivered by UK USV specialists Kraken Works, they will be used by the Coastal Forces Squadron and @RoyalMarines from 47 Commando

➡️https://t.co/MLKSSS62bf

[Victoria Mackarness @Tor_Mackarness]

Could not agree more… 👀🚀

[Fred Thomas MP @FredThomasUK]

We don’t just need to spend more on defence - we need to spend differently.

Why are we using millions of pounds of missiles to shoot down Iranian drones worth only thousands?

We’re helping Ukraine build cheaper counter-drone capability. It’s time we built it at home too.

[Victoria Mackarness @Tor_Mackarness]

Barrons not mincing his words!

[Ellen Milligan @EllenAMilligan]

Sir Richard Barrons tells @ChathamHouse that the UK is “trapped in a conspiracy of stupidity” because politicians aren’t willing to make the case that public spending elsewhere needs to be cut to fund defence.

“We will fail until provoked by an event we should have deterred”

[Victoria Mackarness @Tor_Mackarness]

@AlexAshWalms @univofstandrews Beautiful picture Alex

[The New Statesman @NewStatesman]

Britain is in denial on defence

Politicians have not prepared the public for a dangerous new era

Today's Morning Call, with @georgeeaton https://t.co/qE1ieoQoKw

[Christopher Wipper @SGTWipper1Each]

Your Security Clearance doesn't make you James Bond; it just means you get to read boring reports that make you question life choices.

[Victoria Mackarness @Tor_Mackarness]

@HugoGye @The_Fence_Mag Nice hat

[Victoria Mackarness @Tor_Mackarness]

@GarethJennings3 Same for the VRM office!