I'm John Batchew with my good colleague Anatole-Levin, who helps me understand British politics

whenever I come up against a wall, I can't get around and it can't go over.

And this is one of them. There is a report that the EU, one of their counselors, is recommending a reduction in the fee that I believe the U.K. is required or suggested to pay in order to join in with the collective defense thinking in the EU.

This is quite separate from NATO, but then again, there's a lot of

overlap, and that that is a generous offer, and the UK is now asked to accept it and join.

Anatole, I may have boxed this up because the EU and NATO get confusing, and labor also gets confusing. What is the issue

for Brussels about bringing UK in? It would be a very big helpmate if they're going to have a

collective defense to have the UK backing you. Well, absolutely. I mean, and indeed, UK participation

in European defence is widely viewed as essential.

But, of course, the problem is that Britain is no longer part of the EU.

And, you know, absolutely central to this, obviously to this effort at European rearmament, is investing in European military industries and in new weapons production.

But that, of course, raises the whole issue of budgets, of, you know, financial packages.

And the fact that Britain isn't in the EU has made that complicated.

And basically, previously, the EU was trying to drive a very hard bargain for how much money

Britain would have to put into this common pot.

Now it seems they're, you know, as you say, they're willing, it seems to compromise on that.

But of course, I mean, that also does raise the question of whether the money is actually there or will be there because, you know, Britain is now heading into a, like France before it, into an absolutely agonizing budget, you know, on which the government,

the British government has changed its mind about six times by now over what taxes to raise

and not to raise and what election promises to keep and what to break, because the money is very short and other

services are in very bad trouble and the population is very unhappy. So without massive

additional borrowing, you know, which drives Britain even further into indebtedness,

it's not easy to see, you know, where all this money for massive rearmament is going to come from.

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