Matthew Green writes from Ukraine 25 years after he was first elected MP here

Twenty-five years on from his election as an MP, Lib Dem parliamentary candidate for South Shropshire Matthew Green is in Ukraine and reflects on the new challenges facing Britain in a changed world. 

Twenty-five years ago, I had just been elected the Liberal Democrat Member of Parliament for Ludlow. In the past 150 years I am the only MP to represent the area (now called South Shropshire) who was not either a Conservative or their Liberal Unionist allies.

British politics and the international situation have changed so significantly in those 25 years. There are a number of significant components to this: Firstly, the alarming rise of ethno-nationalism in the UK, the US and across Europe. Secondly, the US entering another period of isolationism, similar to where they were prior to the first and second world wars. And thirdly, the re-emergence of a ‘might is right’ approach to geopolitics, led by China and the US, with Russia trying to believe (incorrectly) they too can play the same game.

These changes leave the security of the UK, and all who call it their home, at a vastly greater risk than previously. When I was elected in 2001, security was low down the public’s, and therefore politicians’, concerns. That is no longer the case.

The UK faces a range of significant medium and long-term challenges: climate change; an aging population; too many of the public happier to believe an anonymous post on social media than established news outlets or communication from the Government; a damagingly polarised and toxic public debate on immigration. The list is a long one. But these debates are academic if the UK is not capable of surviving attacks, either of the hybrid or direct kind. 

We need to accept we are already in a hybrid war with Russia and that we can no longer rely on the US to come to our assistance. We are in the equivalent of the late 1930s  when it comes to rebuilding our defences, in terms of both military and civil resilience. But too many politicians don’t want to mention this as they whip up populist fervour to chase votes. 

I write this in Ukraine, where it is much easier to understand the dangerous position the UK is now in.

Matthew recorded a video after he crossed the border into Poland, which you can watch here.