Is the public ready for difficult decisions on defence?
Coffee House Shots
The Spectator
4.4 • 2.1K Ratings
🗓️ 3 June 2025
⏱️ 16 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Former Commander of Joint Forces Command – and one of the authors of the Strategic Defence Review – General Sir Richard Barrons joins Lucy Dunn and James Heale to talk through the main conclusions of the review, and the questions it raises. Labour have talked up the fact that this is the first government in a generation to not reduce the size of the armed forces. But, as Sir Richard explains, difficult choices await politicians and the public if the UK wants to be more prepared, and faster, for potential threats.
Produced by Patrick Gibbons.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | As a coffee out shots listener, you will be all too familiar with the headlines that have dominated the news cycle in the past month. |
| 0:06.5 | Trump, tariffs, trade wars, stock market crashes and general economic instability. |
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| 0:39.9 | investment involves risk. Hello, welcome to Coffee House Shots. I'm Lissy Dunn and today I'm |
| 0:49.0 | joined by James Heel and former commander of the UK Joint Forces Command and one of the leaders of the |
| 0:53.7 | 2025 Strategic Defence Review, Richard Barnes. Prime Minister, our and former commander of the UK Joint Forces Command and one of the leaders of the 2025 |
| 0:54.5 | Strategic Defence Review, Richard Barron's. Prime Minister Kirstarmer unveiled the long-awaited |
| 0:59.8 | strategic defence review yesterday, with the 140-page document released online last night. It involved |
| 1:05.6 | £15 billion worth of investment in nuclear warheads, plans to create a hybrid Royal Navy, |
| 1:10.7 | and better housing |
| 1:11.5 | for the armed forces. James, what are the headlines from the UK's defence plan that have got |
| 1:15.8 | people talking? Well, since we recorded this yesterday, Lucy, what came out was, of course, |
| 1:20.0 | that House Commons debate, John Healy's statement in which he made much the fact that, as he said, |
| 1:24.7 | this was the first government in a generation that it's not going to be reducing the size of the armed forces. Among the military, I think there's some relief |
| 1:31.0 | that this was the first SDR in decades that didn't propose cutting regiments, for instance, |
| 1:35.3 | and what it's going to do is increase the number of troops going up to 76,000 by 2030, |
| 1:41.4 | and obviously that is going to be something that's taken an encouragement. But really, I think a lot of this was leaked out over the past two, three days or so. |
| 1:46.9 | We knew most of what was going to be announced. |
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