In March 1983, Ronald Reagan announced on television that the era of mutually assured destruction could come to an end thanks to developments in science which would make nuclear missiles ‘impotent and obsolete’. The US president’s aim of developing sophisticated interception systems was quickly nicknamed ‘Star Wars’ and would later become formalised as the ‘Strategic Defence Initiative’ or SDI. For a population which had been terrified to its wits’ end since the Soviet Union first developed nuclear weapons in 1949 the response was broadly positive, but in practical terms the building of a foolproof interception relied on untested technologies like particle beams and space-based lasers which were found to be impractical. For leftist historians and writers, ‘Star Wars’ became a symbol of Reagan’s emphasis on style over substance, the epitome of politics by television – though there is some evidence that it spooked the Soviet Union into coming to the negotiating table.

Britain’s real vulnerability against Russia is that we lack a robust conventional strike arsenal

Britain’s real vulnerability against Russia is that we lack a robust conventional strike arsenal

With the ‘Britannia Shield’, Kemi Badenoch seems to be having her own Star Wars moment – albeit out of government. The press release had all of the marks of a policy stunt: the £10 billion costing, which is conveniently the cheapest way you can get to double-digit billions, and the tell-tale use of ‘Iron Dome’, borrowing the resonant Israeli metaphor also lifted by Donald Trump for his........

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