Biohazards, Putin, extremism… we’ll need more than a few

Oliver Dowden’s advice on stockpiling forgets that co-operation is vital if we are to stand a chance against modern threats

At 2pm: tell citizens to stockpile batteries and bottled water. At 5pm: call general election. Who drew up that timetable? What a juxtaposition: 14 years of Conservative rule; a nation cramming its cupboards with emergency baked beans.

But then you listen to Oliver Dowden’s “resilience” speech, given on Wednesday to the London Defence Conference: “biosecurity hazards… catastrophic risks… geopolitical tensions… malign online actors… cyber-attacks”. And you listen to Rishi Sunak’s, three hours later: “darkest of days… the Cold War… Putin’s Russia… Islamist extremism… migration weaponised by hostile states”. You realise there’s a theme.

• Martha Gill is an Observer columnist

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