Hello, I'm Hugo Rifkin, and now we're going to be unpacking the politics of the day,

from whether the UK is supporting its allies in the Middle East to the increasingly warlike language coming out of the US about, well, the war.

And we'll try and find some time to talk about some other stories to maybe even some fun stuff.

And joining me, two journalists effortly blending, serious and wherever they go and they are daisy mcandrew hello

good morning good morning how are you very well i like the idea that i'm effortlessly blending

that's what it says here it must be true and also matthew sayette hello matthew morning hugo

how you keep it how am i yes how are you? I'm all right, thanks. How are you? No further questions. You may go. Look, we've got a lot to talk about, so I'm going to crack on quickly, and let's start with the serious stuff. Defense Secretary, John Healy, has traveled to Cyprus today amid claims that the UK has not done enough to protect its allies in the Middle East. There's also a lot of criticism of Britain over its failure to send forces to the region earlier. The destroyer HMS Dragon wins itself for Cyprus until next week because it's being brought out of maintenance. What do you think about this, Matthew? We'll come on to the kind of the general logic of the war itself in a moment. But has Britain been caught napping? Are we failing to

defend our interests? I think that given where we are, given the denuded capacity of our

defence, given that we are completely dependent on the American security umbrella, we had no

choice in the national interest to back what Donald Trump had

decided to do in alliance with Benjamin Netanyahu, whatever are reservations. And I have

enormous reservations, severe reservations. But one of the lessons of history is that you can only

project your own voice and your own analysis of a situation if you have the strength to do so.

Donald Trump is a bully. He's somebody who I think can easily turn against people. He can change his mind, obviously, also.

But I think it would have been in the national interest for Kea Stama to give full-throated support to America

and privately to have expressed severe doubts about the logic, the objectives,

the scope for unintended consequences.

That should have all happened diplomatically.

I have to say I feel some sympathy within me with Labour backbenchers.

Donald Trump has criticised Britain. He criticized us for not doing enough in Afghanistan, that disgraceful remark that he made. You know, I don't

think this is a great president. I think he's one of the worst presidents in history. But given

where we are, we, I think, had to back it and we are weaker by not having done so

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