First published in the Daily Mail on Tuesday 25 September 2018.

Our heroes’ new enemy? The lawyers on a mission to sue them.

Donors who gave blood to the NHS might have been surprised to find out their good deed could have been saving the Taliban.

During the Afghanistan war, large volumes of blood collected here were sent to the field hospital in Helmand province, where it was used to treat both our own soldiers and the men trying to kill them.

This strange state of affairs encapsulates the contradictions of war fought with honour — and, increasingly, war fought with an eye on the law.

British surgeons at Camp Bastion went to extraordinary lengths to save wounded enemy fighters — and rightly so.

It was their duty under the Geneva Convention but also the moral thing to do, even if it meant patching up injured Afghan insurgents and enabling them to return to their deadly activities planting more roadside bombs.

Army doctors and medics accepted their humanitarian obligations, approaching each patient as a medical challenge rather than an individual who might be on the wrong side of the war.

Nonetheless, they were acutely aware that the enemy did not share the same standards.

Read in full …

First published in the Daily Mail on Monday 24 September 2018.

Shot down by the PC brigade: As recruits to Britain’s shrinking armed forces are told it’s ‘okay to cry’ and have a wobbly belly, Russian troops come out of training ‘made of steel’, claims a new book

• An explosive new book dares to ask if Britain’s Armed Forces are fit for purpose
• Lord Ashcroft and Isabel Oakeshott revealed how cuts have left us exposed
• In today’s extract, they highlight a new threat — political correctness…

Are Britain’s Armed Forces fit for purpose? An explosive new book dares to ask the question. On Saturday, in the first part of our exclusive serialisation, the authors, Lord Ashcroft and Isabel Oakeshott, revealed how spending cuts have left us perilously exposed in the face of renewed Russian aggression. In today’s extract, they highlight a new threat — political correctness.

Read in full …

First published in the Daily Mail on Saturday 22 September 2018.

An army cut to ribbons, a Navy struggling to stay afloat and a tank unit so weak it’s nicknamed ‘Operation Tethered Goat’. As Putin flexes his might, a new book claims the British military is at breaking point.

• At a time of international crisis our Armed Forces didn’t have what was needed
• Theresa May ordered airstrikes on Syria to punish the Assad regime this year
• British submarines were loaded with cruise missiles and dispatched

Earlier this year, Theresa May ordered airstrikes on Syria to punish the Assad regime for its use of chemical weapons.

Reports quickly emerged that British submarines loaded with cruise missiles had been dispatched and were on their way to the Mediterranean.

Cue images of sleek, silent vessels powering their way underwater at top speed, the Royal Navy responding with vigour as it has done since the days of Nelson and beyond.

Read in full … 

With two months to go until the midterm elections, I have conducted a 6,000-sample poll of American voters to provide a snapshot of the national mood as the campaigns get fully into gear.

To start with the biggest-picture question of all, is the country heading in the right direction, or is it off on the wrong track?

Read more …

First published in The Sunday Times Magazine on 16 September 2018.

During their childhoods, they were typically adventurous and boisterous boys: they loved making model aircraft, sailing toy boats, hunting for crabs in seaside pools and swimming off remote beaches. (more…)

Lord Ashcroft’s new book – White Flag? An Examination of the UK’s Defence Capability – will be published on October 2 and can be pre-ordered now.

The book, co-written with political journalist Isabel Oakeshott and published by Biteback Publishing, will examine the state of the UK’s armed forces after years of cuts. It will assess whether they are ready to deal with coming threats and the possibility that this country may be drawn into military conflict which is not at a time and place of our choosing. It will also explore the politics of defence. (more…)

Lord Ashcroft KCMG PC has had his latest “hero of the month” article published in Britain at War, the country’s best-selling military history monthly magazine.

The September issue of the magazine has a three-page write-up on the life and bravery of Company Quartermaster-Sergeant Alexander Brereton, who was born in Manitoba, Canada, in November 1892. (more…)

First published in the Daily Express on 17 August 2018.

He was a soldiers’ soldier who represents all that I most admire about the Victoria Cross (VC), Britain and the Commonwealth’s most prestigious gallantry award for courage in the face of the enemy. (more…)

Lord Ashcroft KCMG PC has had his latest “hero of the month” article published in Britain at War, the country’s best-selling military history monthly magazine.

The August issue of the magazine has a two-page write-up on the life and bravery of Sergeant Henry Dalziel VC. Dalziel was born in North Queensland, Australia, and he enlisted in into the Australian Imperial Force in 1915, aged 21. (more…)

Rarely can a Prime Minister have been so glad to see the back of her colleagues. As she left Westminster for a well-earned holiday last week, Theresa May knew that each one of the crucial votes she survived in a fraught parliamentary session only served to underline just how unenviable her task of shepherding any kind of Brexit deal through the House of Commons will be – if indeed a deal can be concluded that she is prepared to sign.

Read more …