Hello and welcome to this special sponsored edition of The Spectator Podcast. I'm Kate Andrews.

While the COVID pandemic rages on, eyes are starting to turn to our economic recovery.

With the most severe economic contraction of any major country, coupled with a looming unemployment crisis, innovative and

bold ideas are needed now more than ever to get the economy back on track. With a forthcoming

defense review, thought to be the biggest since World War II, now is the time to look at how

defense, engineering, and manufacturing sectors can help rebuild the post-COVID economy.

Joining me to discuss this today are Tobias Elwood, Conservative MP and chair of the

Defense Select Committee, Tony Danker, head of B. The Business and incoming Director General

of the CBI, and Charles Woodburn, CEO of BAE Systems.

And thanks to BAE for kindly sponsoring this podcast. Charles, I'll come to you first.

Threats of security were changing long before this crisis with more emphasis on cyber security.

What impact, if at all, has the pandemic had on the way we think about security?

I mean, the pandemic has forced all of us to think, you know, very carefully at, you know, how the UK can be exposed.

And cyber, as you know, is an area that we've been looking at for quite some time.

But, you know, we've seen cyber activity in both the government space, but also in the civilian space.

Cyber activity or malicious cyber activity pick up over the course of the pandemic. You know, I think that the threats or the bad actors

will always look for ways to expose. And when, you know, normal means of travel are hindered,

they will use alternative routes.

And cyber has been an area that they've been, I think, quite aggressive through this

pandemic environment. And not just in the UK, we've seen it in the other five-eyes nations

around the world, this spike up in cyber activity. It's an area that in BA.E, we've been

investing in capability for quite some time, both on the defence side, but also in the civilian

...