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There are those who believe Britain isn’t as prepared as it should be for war. That, since the cold war, successive governments have allowed its defences to shrink too far and Britons have forgotten what it means to protect their country. Among them is Deborah Haynes, the security and defence editor at Sky News, who has come up with a series to show us exactly how unprepared the country is for an attack.
The Wargame, a new podcast from Sky News and Tortoise Media, simulates a defence emergency to show what could happen were Russia to attack the UK. The show models itself on the kind of simulations practised by governments (the difference being that nothing under discussion here is classified). Impressively, the cast includes former Labour minister Jack Straw, who resumes his old role as foreign secretary; Amber Rudd, who steps into her former job as home secretary; and former Tory defence secretary Ben Wallace, who plays the prime minister. With them are assorted ex-bigwigs in law, defence and national security.
With the concept explained by Haynes and introductions made, we are thrust into a Cobra emergency response meeting following a (fake) news item that police in Norfolk have discovered the bodies of two RAF fighter pilots, supposedly murdered in retaliation for a bombing at a Russian naval base. Meanwhile the Kremlin is moving warships and submarines around in the north Atlantic. Things hot up as 40 missiles are launched by Russia, bound for UK military sites and Heathrow airport. It is, we are told, an act of war. So how should the government respond?
We are two episodes in and, so far, the picture painted by The Wargame is bleak. In terms of military hardware, the UK seems to be short of everything: warships, fighter planes, air defence missiles. Meanwhile, the warships it does have seem to be in the wrong place. Since Trump’s re-election, there is also a question mark over whether the US would step in to protect its Nato allies in a crisis. All this potentially leaves the government with two options: to give in or go nuclear.
Purely as entertainment, the series isn’t without problems. It’s very talky and, even though the cast do a convincing job (you’d hope so, given that they are playing versions of themselves), it is hard to keep tabs on who is who. And no matter how much producers try to build a sense of peril, it’s impossible to forget that this is a mock-up enacted by a group of government retirees, and that there are currently real wars causing unfathomable suffering in Ukraine, Gaza, Sudan and beyond. But as a piece of propaganda for increased defence spending in the UK, The Wargame is smart, effective, and chilling to boot. One can only hope Vladimir Putin isn’t listening.
