I'm John Betzer with my colleagues, Simon Constable, writing for Barron's about wheat prices,

writing for Fox, about Victor Orban and the European Union, and also an Englishman in the south of France.

So I call upon him to comment on Sir Kirst Starrmer's visit to Washington, extremely successful, got on very well with President Trump

and delivered an invitation from the king to come to Balmur Castle soon enough when the king's there this summer at Scotland,

and a second state visit for Mr. Trump, who was thrilled and delighted.

At the same time, within 24 hours, Mr. Starrmer and Mr. McCroner conferring with

Zelensky of Ukraine, and the U.K. is interested or indicating it can provide some parts of a European guarantor force for Ukraine

in the event the negotiations turn to needing security on a line of control.

Simon, the UK military, I'm told it's been cut to the bone, cut to the bone, cut to the bone since the

1970s. The numbers indicate 144,000 for everything, Army, Navy, Air Force, and in addition to that,

I'm told that they use a German sidearm because Britain no longer manufactures rifles for its own, the Royal Armory

doesn't manufacture for its own troops. Is it in a position to send troops to Ukraine? And what is

the general opinion of the military by the young men and women who would ordinarily be part of it?

Well, I think that the military is viewed highly on an individual basis.

So if you meet a soldier in a bar or a coffee shop, you'll have great respect for them.

Overall, though, it's way too small.

It needs to be beefed back up.

The best bit of it is that the Royal Navy, which needs more planes for its aircraft carriers,

but it's in a reasonably good size of it.

But the army has been really, really thinned out in a way that it shouldn't have been.

I think this is part of what's going to need to happen over the next few years.

It's going to need to be a recruitment drive, bringing back perhaps some recently retired officers and non-commissioned officers as well to help train a new, a new, very effective army that is

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