YouSaid · the spoken record

Tony Radakin

lines on the record: 56
first: 2025-09-05
most recent: 2025-09-05
sittings or episodes: 1
sources: podcast

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“The speech I gave in the Ministry of Defence was this reflection that in these roles you stand on the shoulders of giants, the men and women that serve our country whether in uniform or civil servants, and temporarily you are allowed to stand on their shoulders, and that these people have got your back, have got the nation's back, and that's the big reflection.”
2025-09-05 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · China, Russia and us: Tony Radakin on four years as Chief of the Defence Staff · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yes, I'm fortunate that I've got four boys between 19 and 27 who I think are quite proud of their dab, but they're sort of refreshingly dismissive. So they made the point at the weekend dad You do realise on after you've handed over you'll be Tony Who I think that's healthy I think that's correct. I go back to I think it was Roosevelt The privileges having been in the arena and it's the same when you're in command it's not to them be a bit mournful that you're no longer centre stage. So I think that's that's good there's an element of decompression and stepping away and there's an element of recognizing that this was very fortunate to have these positions your privilege and the other phenomenal sense is that you start”
2025-09-05 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · China, Russia and us: Tony Radakin on four years as Chief of the Defence Staff · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“To say, can you let the Lebanese Chief of Defence know that we will go into Lebanon? We won't go further than five miles, but he needs to remove all of the Lebanese army from that border post and to clear at least five miles. You then Again, these are extraordinary conversations because you're then ringing up a fellow chief, in effect to say your country is about to be invaded. And again, it's a remarkable position to be in, remarkable trust that you're held in, and then you have these really difficult conversations. And that, again, it's a feature of UK's place with our intelligence agencies and with our military in terms of how we broker and how we operate with other nations.”
2025-09-05 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · China, Russia and us: Tony Radakin on four years as Chief of the Defence Staff · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“There's a lot to learn, particularly the Israeli penetration of those terrorist organizations. Then the willingness to act and in a military terms the success of those so taking down Lebanese Hezbollah in Lebanon taking on the hooties. Iran's nuclear program much further to the right, militarily, that there are things that we need to learn. And again, some of the relationships that you have as a UK Chief of Defence are extraordinary in terms of Your insights on how you're used. One of the other slightly bizarre conversations was the Israeli Chief of Defense getting in touch to ask me to speak to the Lebanese chief of defense who's now their president, lovely man, Joseph Aun.”
2025-09-05 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · China, Russia and us: Tony Radakin on four years as Chief of the Defence Staff · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“What's going to Don't and I because I know what you're trying to do. I'm told it was murder on the toys. I know what you're trying to do and I definitely don't.”
2025-09-05 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · China, Russia and us: Tony Radakin on four years as Chief of the Defence Staff · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“No, that was different. We were given the heads up that America was going to strike Iran. I was at a very smart party about to have a bop and do my worst dad dancing and then looked at my phone and you get these messages saying the chairman of the joint chiefs wants to speak to you and wants to speak to you in 45 minutes time and it needs to be on a secret phone where you know then that it's something quite serious. You then get the message about America is going to strike Iran. You then got this responsibility because you know that Iran's response might be to strike in the region. We've got people deployed in the region so you speak to your chief of joint operations. You make sure the prime minister is aware. You make sure the defence secretary and the foreign secretary is aware. It's a slightly surreal moment.”
2025-09-05 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · China, Russia and us: Tony Radakin on four years as Chief of the Defence Staff · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“We've been close enough to Israel to understand some of the things that they've been doing and how they go about it from a”
2025-09-05 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · China, Russia and us: Tony Radakin on four years as Chief of the Defence Staff · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I think when you look at Israel and what What it's done with Iran? and some of the success that it's had in putting the nuclear program into the long grass, I think that would be a much clearer military type operation. Last October was really significant. Over 100 high-tech jets, fifth generation jets, less than 100 munitions that took out Iran's air defenses that then meant that Israel could contemplate further action against Iran and you saw that earlier this year.”
2025-09-05 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · China, Russia and us: Tony Radakin on four years as Chief of the Defence Staff · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I come back to maybe the Ukraine experience again. It's nations that decide whether or not they're going to reject invaders. It's nations that decide what they want their future to be. And that's what you're challenging when you glibly say that you're going to take over another nation or that that's what your ambition is and that's what you intend to do. And that is... I think the experience that we've seen is that, and it's true of Iraq, it's true of Afghanistan, it's true of Ukraine, the sort of geopolitical game of risk that you can subjugate countries with a whim is just not true.”
2025-09-05 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · China, Russia and us: Tony Radakin on four years as Chief of the Defence Staff · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Frank means that you reflect on Russia going into Ukraine has not worked out as President Putin wanted. Frank means speaking military to military that we have a responsibility to our political leaders to be honest about what's the art of the possible and what is the cost of trying to fulfill those political aims, and that actually the real cost is in thousands of lives, and that actually sometimes those political aims are much harder to achieve through the whim of deploying militaries than people want to believe.”
2025-09-05 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · China, Russia and us: Tony Radakin on four years as Chief of the Defence Staff · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yes So it's important that we have military to military relations. It's important that you avoid miscalculation. It's important that you're an agent of the government. You're not going there, as Tony Radikin of Chancellor's, the Chief of Defense. You're going there at the behest of the Prime Minister, having met with President G at, I think, the one of the summits last November, and that was on the list of things that might happen this year. And then you have sensible and frank conversations. And again, I won't go into the detail.”
2025-09-05 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · China, Russia and us: Tony Radakin on four years as Chief of the Defence Staff · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yes. It's even more important that P five nations that nuclear powers are Have military to military relationships with other countries”
2025-09-05 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · China, Russia and us: Tony Radakin on four years as Chief of the Defence Staff · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I won't go into the detail in it. It's slightly more complicated than that, but I agree that it's a shocking deficiency that that amount of information was miscent.”
2025-09-05 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · China, Russia and us: Tony Radakin on four years as Chief of the Defence Staff · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“It's a shocking problem. You then go into your you do what the Ministry of Defence does, which is that you bring in phenomenal people to say right, how are we going to respond? There's a political aspect there. There's a legal aspect. There's a departmental one. How on earth did this happen? How do we make sure it doesn't happen again? Then there's the practical one, which is how are we going to get the people back that we need to get back?”
2025-09-05 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · China, Russia and us: Tony Radakin on four years as Chief of the Defence Staff · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I am not sure that that's true, and I actually think what you've seen is a remarkable ability to try to get people out of Afghanistan that we owe a responsibility to. So you saw that just before I took over with Operation Pitting and a phenomenal effort. And then you've seen, well, you haven't seen. Then we've kept quiet the other effort that's been going on throughout my time to bring back more people to fulfill our responsibility.”
2025-09-05 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · China, Russia and us: Tony Radakin on four years as Chief of the Defence Staff · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“failed to launch from the aircraft. That I got a heads up as I was leaving Washington, I then had a call on a secret line when we arrived at Heathrow. Those are the sobering moments.”
2025-09-05 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · China, Russia and us: Tony Radakin on four years as Chief of the Defence Staff · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“That was a difficult one. I think the most difficult are deaths. So whether that's deaths through training or deaths with accidents, there's a responsibility. I remember when I was first sea lord and the Royal Navy we were responsible for a young army diver losing his life. You face that responsibility, you meet the family, Lance Corporal Partridge was his name. Those are the difficult moments. Another one was With Ukraine in september twenty twenty two when we realized that Russia had shot at a rivet joint a surveillance plane that was over the Black Sea. about thirty people on board and the missile had missed the aircraft and the second missile that Russia had fired from a rogue pilot.”
2025-09-05 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · China, Russia and us: Tony Radakin on four years as Chief of the Defence Staff · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“But only if it was a very different role to being chief of defence and it doesn't embarrass the current chief of defence. So that's clear. But what's happening with the coalition of the willing is even bigger than Russia and Ukraine. It's much more about European security, this adjustment with America, the reassurance to America that Europe is taking more responsibility for its security, the energizing of Europe, that this is the richest quartile on the planet, five hundred million people. It's got all kinds of capabilities and strategic depth, and let's use that to garner a better responsibility for our own security.”
2025-09-05 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · China, Russia and us: Tony Radakin on four years as Chief of the Defence Staff · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“So the roll of a former chief of defence is to support the person on watch. So Rich Knighton is my successor, I wish him the very best. That feels like the dominant piece for me.”
2025-09-05 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · China, Russia and us: Tony Radakin on four years as Chief of the Defence Staff · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Is an America that is willing to lean in even more to see if it can broke a peace. And then there's another set of preparations that if the ceasefire emerges Can we have a coalition the willing? Is that, and that's being led by UK and France?”
2025-09-05 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · China, Russia and us: Tony Radakin on four years as Chief of the Defence Staff · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“and having lost a million people killed and wounded, it will lose a further two million people killed and wounded. So this is about To keep them in the fight and to keep them imposing that cost on Russia. And then it's for President Zelensky to decide the intricacies of territorial settlements and whether some things are temporary and de facto and what becomes legal and de jure and we've been really clear that we support Ukraine and that's for Ukraine to decide and then it's having the confidence but also the recognition that Ukraine is not only fighting for its security it's also a reflection of all of our security so that's that's what's going on and what's different but what's different is”
2025-09-05 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · China, Russia and us: Tony Radakin on four years as Chief of the Defence Staff · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Various factors the first one is that this war has been a disaster for Russia. Putin wanted less NATO he's got more NATO. We've grown from thirty nations to thirty two nations. Putin originally thought that he was subjugate Ukraine in days if not weeks. That's clearly not the case. It's a facile description, but it's a really important one. If a snail had left Rostov von Don in Russia on the twenty fourth of february twenty twenty two, by now it would have crossed all the way through Ukraine and it will be halfway through Poland. That's how difficult Russia is finding it just to get those four oblasts. If Russia carries on at the pace that it currently is, it will take it four point four years to get the remaining territory in those four years.”
2025-09-05 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · China, Russia and us: Tony Radakin on four years as Chief of the Defence Staff · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“What's happened with President Trump is a new demand to say never how does this war end? And I think what you've seen is a British government, you've seen European governments, but most importantly, you're seeing a Ukraine government. And President Zelensky saying that he's willing, don't need an enormous step, he's willing to have an unconditional ceasefire. So when I see President Trump meeting President Putin, I see it as part of this opportunity to try to end the war and bring peace and at least a ceasefire to Ukraine.”
2025-09-05 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · China, Russia and us: Tony Radakin on four years as Chief of the Defence Staff · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“To I, if I look back when President Biden was the American president, then it was really clear there were four aspects in terms of the approach. Support Ukraine, impose a cost on Russia, maintain international unity, and avoid escalation. And within that, and I think collectively we've all been successful in meeting those four parameters.”
2025-09-05 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · China, Russia and us: Tony Radakin on four years as Chief of the Defence Staff · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Who we are, who our real friends are, who our partners are, and that's what I'm saying. I'm not saying that the world is sugarcoated and everything will be easy and so on. I'm just saying let's be confident and recognize where the economic power is, where the political and diplomatic power is, and where the military power is. And that's what we've got, and we should be really confident in how we might use that and how we can protect ourselves from some of the concerns that are out there.”
2025-09-05 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · China, Russia and us: Tony Radakin on four years as Chief of the Defence Staff · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“So I suppose officials Like my former role and those in the intelligence services and the heads of the armed forces of the different services, I suppose our role is to look at this in a slightly more sober way. So not the froth of commentaries, but what is our lived experience? And then when you look at it through that lens, Nick, then the nuclear relationship continues. The intelligence relationship continues, the closeness of our militaries continues, the economic investment continues, the diplomacy continues, and so on. Yes, I get the froth and the commentary and it's terribly exciting and so on. There's a dullness to national strategic interests and we have a mutuality with America, with our Western partners. We should be really confident of.”
2025-09-05 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · China, Russia and us: Tony Radakin on four years as Chief of the Defence Staff · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“There was a debate. I think if you're, maybe if your boring officials like senior military where your relationship with the US military goes back decades, same with our intelligence agencies in the sense of we deploy together, we've commanded each other's forces together, you then have these intelligence relationships. So maybe as that part of the establishment which is less swayed by some of those commentaries, but the more important piece is them meeting with the US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth with our Secretary of Defense John Healey and the candid conversation where the US administration says very plainly that they do have new priorities which is homeland defense and the Indo Pacific that they are going to demand more of Europe but this is not a stepping away.”
2025-09-05 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · China, Russia and us: Tony Radakin on four years as Chief of the Defence Staff · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yes, so I think we're all saying that the world is getting more dangerous, that we need to shift. The precise date, which year and so on, I think that, and I also think we've got to have this confidence in who we are and what our military strength is.”
2025-09-05 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · China, Russia and us: Tony Radakin on four years as Chief of the Defence Staff · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“and scare the British public, and that might make the politicians' life much easier it would not be the responsible thing to do, and it would be what Putin wants, he wants to frighten our public.”
2025-09-05 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · China, Russia and us: Tony Radakin on four years as Chief of the Defence Staff · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“So I think the dilemma is, I'm the Chief of Defence, you've got this responsibility to keep the country safe. And we are safe. The UK is safe because we're a nuclear power. We're in NATO. We're in the biggest and strongest gun club ever, and our principal ally is America the strongest nation on the planet. We're safe for now and for the next few years, but if you look ahead into the twenty thirties, this competition is getting more fierce, Russia is dangerous, and we have to strengthen and we have to strengthen collectively. And that isn't a popularity. So I could, as the former chief of defense, or when I was chief of defense, I could do a speech.”
2025-09-05 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · China, Russia and us: Tony Radakin on four years as Chief of the Defence Staff · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“So, I think this is where you do get to a dilemma that politicians have. The decision about whether or not we should be spending more money on defence has to be a prime ministerial one. And it has to be decided and focused based on an assessment about the country's security. And you can't always make that clear to the public. And I think there's a dilemma. So part of my job.”
2025-09-05 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · China, Russia and us: Tony Radakin on four years as Chief of the Defence Staff · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“You look at my time either as first sea lord or chief of defence, well we've had increases with Boris Johnson, we then had the increase with the ambition under Liz Truss, we then had the increase with Rishi Sunak to 2.5% with Kir Starmer you've had the acceleration of 2.5% to 2027 and then you've had this commitment to 3.5% by 2035. The piece that's different with that 3.5% commitment is the international commitment and that this is an America demanding that Europe steps up and it's a NATO that recognizes this era shift and the challenges and therefore it's more than just a domestic thing it's one that we internationally have to deliver on and then that's the delivery is over the next 10 years and so it's not I didn't want to pretend that next year we've got oodles more cash”
2025-09-05 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · China, Russia and us: Tony Radakin on four years as Chief of the Defence Staff · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“So I don't want to pretend that the 2020s won't continue to be difficult. They will be difficult. And these are era shifts. And my reflection is that prime ministers, governments of whatever hue they take their first duty of government incredibly seriously.”
2025-09-05 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · China, Russia and us: Tony Radakin on four years as Chief of the Defence Staff · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“So we have a plan called the Strategic Defense Review, which is really clear about we need to strengthen our armed forces. We need to continue with the ambition that we've currently got. We're renewing the nuclear deterrent. We're strengthening the army to make it right at the heart of NATO and make it much more lethal. We continue to invest in big programs like a sixth generation fighter for the Air Force. We're doing something again incredibly significant. We're adjusting our nuclear posture so the Royal Air Force will once again become a nuclear service. We're investing in the modernization of defence so all the digital, the connection, the data flows around so that you can generate targets more quickly and you can prosecute those targets more quickly. So all of that is going on. Well, you said we are.”
2025-09-05 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · China, Russia and us: Tony Radakin on four years as Chief of the Defence Staff · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yes, so as well as making me feel really old, Nick You're also reflecting what I think is a big moment, a turning point. So I'm definitely of that era of seeing the very end of the Cold War. Then this period of a peace dividend and what I think is much more significant than people have fully realized in terms of the turning point that we're now in. So the peace dividend is over. The Prime Minister Kirstama talks about we now have the new defense dividend. The figures have just been released for the first time since the end of the Second World War, Europe is spending more on defence than America. Combined. This is extraordinary. That Hague summit of a couple of months ago, the Prime Minister committed to an increase in defence spending of over fifty percent. That's remarkable. So I really”
2025-09-05 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · China, Russia and us: Tony Radakin on four years as Chief of the Defence Staff · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And so on it felt, if I'm honest, it felt to me that if I'd gone down the lawyer routes that has reasoned me confident that maybe I'd make a partner in my thirties and so on. And there was something weird about that, that I was in my early twenties and you kind of know where you might end up. I never knew where I would end up in terms of my naval career. And that curiosity, I think has driven me all the way through. And I've been incredibly lucky and I've enjoyed it.”
2025-09-05 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · China, Russia and us: Tony Radakin on four years as Chief of the Defence Staff · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“No, moved to Bristol and used to live in Pawdia's head near Bristol. But then I think you start your career For me, one of the reasons why I stayed in, I was always curious as to where I would end up. I did a law degree at university. This was in the late eighties when every law graduate could get a job in London. Your tutors were on good number to pick you to go with a large law firm.”
2025-09-05 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · China, Russia and us: Tony Radakin on four years as Chief of the Defence Staff · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Is but I don't I'd like to think that the military depolitical and we support whomever is the British Prime Minister and I also”
2025-09-05 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · China, Russia and us: Tony Radakin on four years as Chief of the Defence Staff · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I don't know yet. I've been firstly law for a couple of years. I tried to move the Navy on. There was an element of shaking the Navy up. Some of that was difficult because it was in the Middle of COVID. Some of it was an ambition we were becoming a carrier nation again. The carrier was deploying on its inaugural deployment to the Far East. There was an ambition, I think, the integrated review in 2021. This was a kind of post-Brexit world, a talk of a global Britain that was wanted to go out into the world. That may be reflected. I used to use the phrase in a global navy, yeah, global Britain, global navy. That might have appealed to Boris Johnson.”
2025-09-05 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · China, Russia and us: Tony Radakin on four years as Chief of the Defence Staff · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, it's interesting. I never felt that way. I think defence is a meritocracy. I think... Those politicians know the chiefs well. I think they've got a good choice. It could have been other chiefs. These are good people. There's a bit of timing. There's a bit of luck. Well, you see, Lord, when I've been first seen.”
2025-09-05 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · China, Russia and us: Tony Radakin on four years as Chief of the Defence Staff · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Because when you then meet a leader who is at war, who has to manage both the war, the morale of his country, keeping the economy going, maintain this phenomenal international relationship so that the support continues, then that's both an emotional aspect as well as being a political leadership. When President Zelensky came to Chequers, Prime Minister Sunak, I think he spent an hour and a quarter in the Chequer study just the two of them one on one. And if you look at, there was a photograph where they were about to board a China helicopter and so on. And it's a manhug. With Boris Johnson, there's a romance. And sometimes I was the bad cop because it's easier for President Zelensky to maybe rail and push against a chief of defense staff than it is to have an awkward conversation with the British Prime Minister.”
2025-09-05 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · China, Russia and us: Tony Radakin on four years as Chief of the Defence Staff · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“It's as you say it's a longer time with the Prime Minister than you normally spend. It's one that's quite sobering because you're going into a war zone and you're going to meet a truly wartime leader in terms of President Zelensky. You have a responsibility, that is to support Ukraine, that is done principally through political leadership, and then you're applying that either with your intelligence agencies, with your diplomats, with your military support. So you're trying to pull that together to enable this conversation to happen between two leaders. and then it's very personal between the two leaders, and I would the support for Ukraine has to be heart and head It can't just be the sober white hall staff paper this is what we should do in our national interest.”
2025-09-05 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · China, Russia and us: Tony Radakin on four years as Chief of the Defence Staff · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“To that vote to me like the period leading up to him there was much more of an intelligence debate across Europe and interestingly the spectre of Iraq came up. And have you got this wrong? Are you over egging? There were those challenges. Those are good debates. We with our closest partners were really clear that this was going to happen. And then there was an acknowledgement by other nations when it did happen, and then the system clicks into gear.”
2025-09-05 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · China, Russia and us: Tony Radakin on four years as Chief of the Defence Staff · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And then that's supported by both the establishment but especially the Prime Minister, then getting on the phone to European leaders and what you saw on the 24th of February was the speed of response, which was not a response in the way that we'd seen with Crimea. It was this fresh response of the West saying we are going to support.”
2025-09-05 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · China, Russia and us: Tony Radakin on four years as Chief of the Defence Staff · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“fell to me it's almost like a political tsunami you've given your advice you've reflected on what the intelligence says what might happen militarily and so on”
2025-09-05 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · China, Russia and us: Tony Radakin on four years as Chief of the Defence Staff · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And Boris Johnson came in and was really, really clear that we were going to be with Ukraine. And then what happened on that morning was...”
2025-09-05 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · China, Russia and us: Tony Radakin on four years as Chief of the Defence Staff · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Describe it as a it was a debate In terms of Whitehall as to how we should You know that Russia's about to attack, and you are almost waiting to hear. You then get a phone call in the early hours of the morning, you then go in and you meet with”
2025-09-05 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · China, Russia and us: Tony Radakin on four years as Chief of the Defence Staff · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Each has taken that position. And I would also reflect that That Ukraine has never been a polarizing issue, I think, for the UK, and it definitely hasn't been politically, and Kir Stalmer in opposition is John Healy as the opposition defence secretary equally took the”
2025-09-05 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · China, Russia and us: Tony Radakin on four years as Chief of the Defence Staff · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“When the invasion came they were really clear in terms of that political moment how was the UK going to respond? So were we going to do another Crimea and look the other way or were we actually going to respond and support Ukraine? And Boris Johnson, Liz Truss, Ben Wallace, both philosophically practically That the role of the UK for this particular illegal instrument.”
2025-09-05 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · China, Russia and us: Tony Radakin on four years as Chief of the Defence Staff · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“You're helped by your service chiefs, so you head of the Navy, Army, Air Force, and your head of strategic command, and you've got a deputy called the Vice Chief. So you've got a team of people that come from across all three services. And then you obviously get much closer to politicians and working with your defence ministers. And the big difference as Chief of Defence Staff is that you're the military advisor to both the Defence Secretary and the Prime Minister. And that's at the heart of the role.”
2025-09-05 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · China, Russia and us: Tony Radakin on four years as Chief of the Defence Staff · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source