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lordrickettsp.bsky.social
Former diplomat, Chair Lords European Affairs Cttee, Vice-Chair RUSI, Hon Pres Normandy Memorial Trust. Author of Hard Choices. Pop up on media a bit. Views all my own!
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An extended discussion with Laura Kuennsberg and Paddy O’Connell on how Starmer and Macron c’d influence Trump. Wish they’d gone together, but they c’d still be an effective double act, given Macron’s experience and Starmer’s pol longevity. UK sh’d host a follow up to the Paris mtg for report back!

submitted 4 hours ago • 3 comments

Thanks for having me on Sam! Much enjoyed the discussion.

submitted 1 day ago • 0 comments

NEW: What is the UK's place in Trump's world? 🎧Fascinating episode of the @instituteforgov.bsky.social podcast with former national security adviser @lordrickettsp.bsky.social joining @alexgathomas.bsky.social and @cathhaddon.bsky.social www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/podcast/insi...

submitted 2 days ago • 9 comments

Thanks for having me on, Sam!

submitted 1 day ago • 0 comments

Well said Kori

submitted 3 days ago • 0 comments

Brilliant news Suzanne. Well done you!

submitted 4 days ago • 0 comments

Strongly recommend.

submitted 7 days ago • 1 comment

Very interesting idea and timing. Most of it is held in Euroclear in Belgium so it the main decision would be 🇧🇪 but they would want explicit support from other EU members (and I imagine UK) given risk of some kind of Russian retaliation.

submitted 9 days ago • 1 comment

This, courtesy of the FT, rather makes the case I set out below for breaking down the barriers to effective UK-EU defence industrial cooperation.

submitted 9 days ago • 0 comments

Macron: “We must also develop a fully integ­rated European defence indus­trial and tech­no­lo­gical base.” He might therefore demand changes in the EU’s protectionist third-country rules which stop UK defence industry from participating in projects involving EU funding. The world has moved on!

submitted 9 days ago • 5 comments

A few thoughts on where we stand after the opening night of Trump does Ukraine. The first glimpse of substance from Hegseth suggests huge concessions will be demanded from Kyiv with no sign of similar pressure on Moscow - rather the reverse, with Trump running hard after Putin. My conclusion? 1/7

submitted 10 days ago • 7 comments

Remarkable exhibition at the Rodin Museum in Paris: Corps In-visible. Theme is Rodin’s long search for a way of sculpting Balzac. Commissioned by a Literary Society, he wanted to embrace the fact that Balzac was fat to evoke his elemental power. Outraged, they rejected portrayals like this.

submitted 16 days ago • 1 comment

Yes this is good news. But dancing in the streets w’d be premature (as well as cold). This will be the launch event for detailed negotiations on the expanding range of issues which are being brought into the reset tent. Agreements esp on the trade issues will probably take a year or more.

submitted 19 days ago • 2 comments

Costa’s invitation to Starmer to join EU Heads (first time since Brexit) for dinner on 3 Feb is a big opportunity. The focus will be on doing more and better together on defence and the timing is right for Starmer to bring some bold ideas on how to address the common problems 1/6

submitted 20 days ago • 3 comments

It’s good that thinking is under way about international supervision of an eventual ceasefire. But let’s be careful about definitions of ‘peacekeeping’ and the scale of deployment. The numbers in this article (up to 200,000) seem to me totally unrealistic. A short 🧵

submitted 22 days ago • 5 comments

You never know where trying to be Trump’s best friend will lead you.

submitted 30 days ago • 3 comments

Quite agree. Civil servants will only speak truth to power if power keeps confidences private.

submitted 35 days ago • 1 comment

Strongly recommend the Pallant House Carrington show (she hated the name Dora and never used it). With a lot of works from private collections, it gives a unique insight into what a good and versatile artist she was. See this drawing of her brother, done as a 19 year old student at the Slade school.

submitted 37 days ago • 2 comments

A short🧵on the largest Caillebotte show for a generation at the Musée d’Orsay. I especially like his celebration of the new Haussmannian Paris taking shape around him. In these two, it’s the engineering feat of the Pont de l’Europe spanning the tracks into St Lazare station/

submitted 43 days ago • 2 comments