Defence, politics and anything else that takes my fancy. Occasionally have enough opinions to ask people to print them.
London
Joined July 2009
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The last three and a half years have been a wild ride but it’s time to bring back the experts and #MakePoliticsBoringAgain. My piece for City AM this morning.
“Monica Grenfell, a writer and health journalist… and the author of bestselling books, including Geezers: On Camp with the SAS.”
Golly I wonder what the admin girl’s motivations for piping up with something controversial may be… 🤔
EXCLUSIVE: Special forces soldiers believe they are “untouchable” and not all of them are the heroes they think they are, according to a former female civil servant who worked alongside them.
Monica Grenfell, who was employed at the Special Air Service (SAS) headquarters in Credenhill, near Hereford, for three years, said some of the elite troops were “feral” and it was “the nasty characters who really ruled the roost”.
She has given evidence under oath to the Afghan Inquiry and has now been interviewed by @thetimes
thetimes.com/article/5706a8a…
So am I meant to hire all of the 200+ qualified applicants for the latest role at my firm so no one’s feelings get hurt? Feels expensive…
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Victoria Mackarness retweeted
It is beyond surreal that the government can say this only a week after telling the country that social security is more important than national security. If they genuinely think there is a risk of war, it is criminally negligent not to raise defence spending.
🚨🇬🇧 BREAKING: UK URGES PUBLIC TO PREPARE FOR MAJOR DISRUPTION — INCLUDING WAR
The UK government is updating its decades-old “war book” and urging households to strengthen resilience against potential national emergencies.
🔴 People are being encouraged to keep basic supplies, including food and bottled water
🔴 Plans cover potential cyberattacks, extreme weather and hostile-state attacks
🔴 Government departments are reassessing preparations for a military attack affecting Britain
🔴 The aim is to ensure households can cope during crises and reduce pressure on emergency services.
The government says safeguarding national security is its first priority.
Victoria Mackarness retweeted
Amazingly it is not a joke that Ukraine’s number of disabled claimants has increased by less than Britain’s in the period since the Ukraine War began.
Victoria Mackarness retweeted
‘Hybrid war’ is increasingly just our word for events which are clearly acts of war that we just don’t want to deter or respond to.
Today, Romania destroyed a naval drone carrying explosives near its Neptun Deep platform in the Black Sea.
An escalating campaign of threats is underway, unsettling our citizens and seeking to divide our Union.
This is hybrid warfare.
The founding mission of our Union is to preserve peace. Today, that also means having the capacity to deter provocation and aggression.
Our Readiness 2030 agenda is mobilising up to EUR 800 billion.
With the European Drone Defence Initiative and the Eastern Flank Watch, we are scaling up production in Europe to deliver capabilities Member States need.
So we can respond to emerging threats with speed, unity and resolve.
The Telegraph’s obsession with making this whole debacle about one customer of a company when by their own admission the supplier works with a huge range of UK defence industry and registered as NDAA approved is beginning to feel a little bit suspect…
Victoria Mackarness retweeted
Today at @Cambridge_Aero we're announcing a $300M Series C funding round to accelerate our mission to protect Allied skies.
Thank you to lead investor @dfjgrowth and for the continued support of our backers @Accel, @eladgil, GFC, Lakestar, @Lux_Capital, Never Lift, Ora Global, @sparkcapital
Victoria Mackarness retweeted
I've spent some time with these guys, stand by to be impressed. If they get it right and we adopt this as a capability it has some significant implications for force development. It will remove alot of the doubt and could make it much less risky for capability leads to reform
Agon, a UK company launched this week, trains allied autonomous weapons to exploit weaknesses in enemy AI.
thetimes.com/uk/defence/arti…
Victoria Mackarness retweeted
One of the most exciting new UK defence companies has just emerged from stealth with a $30m seed.
One of the founders spent 13 years in senior leadership positions at the British Army and then spent five years as a Senior Director at @anduriltech in Europe.
The other founder has already founded or co-founded a bunch of amazing businesses, including Cambridge Aerospace and Iconic.
Today they've launched Agon with a $30m seed.
The company will help arms companies train their weapons to counter enemy systems by finding vulnerabilities in their AI models.
The money has been raised across two rounds, and investors include @lakestarvc, @201vc_, XYZ, Lux Capital and @northzoneVC.
@davidhelgason is the Chairman and Klaus Hommels has joined the board of Directors.
The UK is finally starting to take defence investing seriously, and every week we're seeing more and more companies emerge that are looking to tackle some of the most serious risks that we have.
Amazing news - congrats Tristam Constant and Junaid Hussain
Victoria Mackarness retweeted
Autonomous weapons will be able to fight in a new virtual battlefield where the artificial intelligence-backed systems that power them can practise defeating ever-evolving Russian and Iranian drones. Agon, the company behind the defence tech, launches today thetimes.com/article/71b2310…
Great to talk to Rupert Pearce about the K3 SCOUT, and show him the very boat which was was successfully airdropped from an A400M.
Productive #FIA2026 with the NADs from US and Spain, @wesstreeting, @LukePollard as well as many industry partners. I also saw great examples of UK innovation such as Kraken’s K3 SCOUT, a first-of-its-kind uncrewed vessel capable of being launched from an A400M in flight.
Want to say this is great. Terrified of being called out by @bumsnorkler
Victoria Mackarness retweeted
Our investment in Defence will support good jobs across our nation while making us safer.
Great to open Cambridge Aerospace’s new facility today, and meet some of the people doing critical work for our Armed Forces and our national security.
Ok but this is actually a banging video
Victoria Mackarness retweeted
Couldn’t agree more with @GraemeDownieMP 👍👍
As he said, whether it’s cyber attacks, poisonings, subsea cables, an arson attack on the PM’s house, none of this is ‘sub threshold' or 'grey' activity anymore.
Russian hackers shut down the biggest carmaker in Britain for five weeks, costing billions in damage, a massive hit on the economy and thousands of jobs exposed.
There was no ransom demand.
They just wanted to see if they could do it.
And now they have the answer.…
I know I probably sound like a broken record here… but we can't separate defending our country from defending the things that keep it running. Factories, businesses, the grid, water, the NHS. It's all the same fight and we're just not ready for it.
If we keep treating them as separate problems, we’ll keep getting hit. It’s as simple as that.
I’ve seen the same problem happening in defence procurement. We see the threat coming, we’re underprepared, we’re too slow to move when we need to, the bill arrives, it gets bigger every time… and the cycle continues. Same problem in cyber. Same problem in energy. Same problem in supply chains. I could go on…….
Labour has one more chance to turn things around. We must focus on building a country that can take a hit and keep standing. National resilience. Whoever leads our party next has to make that the job.
Victoria Mackarness retweeted
Cyber attacks, poisonings, subsea cables, a planned arson attack on the Prime Minister's car. This is not "sub threshold" or "grey" activity.
These Russian attacks directly impact ordinary British people every day. We should tell them that and protect them. (2/2)
Victoria Mackarness retweeted
For months, I have called for the UK government to make more information about this attack public, including in the Chamber just last week, so the British people can see we are already in a conflict with Russia...... (1/2)
New: Russian hackers were behind a cyberattack last year that crippled Jaguar Land Rover that cost billions in damages and harmed the British economy, investigators have concluded.
nytimes.com/2026/06/26/world…
Also, I’m sorry but I bloody love bombs and budgets. And drones. And boats. And tanks. And fiscal responsibility. Must just be a crap woman.
