One of the strangest trends of recent times is how Germany has become the accepted benchmark for a certain type of British political commentator, against which the UK is to be measured and found wanting. The conceit has even been spun into a book recently, whose title, Why the Germans Do it Better: Notes from a Grown-Up Country, sums up this particular genre perfectly. Why can’t we be a “normal” country, goes the argument; why can’t we be “grown-up” like our Teutonic cousins? It’s a strange argument at the best of times (what is a normal country?), but when applied to defence, as in this tweet by Aaron Bastani, it really becomes absurd.

Obviously Germany, when it comes to defence, is a profoundly abnormal country by European standards: even leaving aside the penetration of its special forces units by extreme-Right activists wishing to overthrow liberal democracy (which would no doubt alarm the Germany fanboys were it to be replicated by the SAS, and rightly so), its inability to maintain functioning armed forces makes the country an outlier in Europe, rather than an exemplar of “normality.” Perhaps British commentators could learn something from directing their gaze south of the Alps to Italy, which is, I would suggest, a more useful comparison for us to engage with.

Already the sixth-largest naval power in the world, Italy has engaged in a dramatic programme of naval modernisation in recent years, which has not quite received the attention it deserves. Despite the dramatic and frequent changes of government for which Italy is famous, the defence spending necessary for such an undertaking has not been a matter of political dispute, instead achieving cross-party support.