A Night Among Britain’s Strategic Class
Inside the National Liberal Club, tradition met strategy. Trafalgar remembrance became preparation as diplomats and defence thinkers weighed risks, urgency, ritual turning memory into responsibility.
As Britain edges into a more threatening decade, the rooms where history is remembered have begun to feel like places of preparation. The National Liberal Club’s annual Trafalgar Dinner is not merely tradition for tradition’s sake. It is where defence thinkers, diplomats, veterans, and public servants gather to revisit the meaning of maritime order and strategic responsibility. This year, I was among the invited guests. What struck me was not the nostalgia, but the quiet clarity of the moment, history has returned, and those who shape policy know it.
You should have seen the staircase. A great red sweep curling down like a theatre curtain. Naval cadets in dark blue stood along the curve. White caps. Straight backs. Calm faces. The lamps on the landing caught the bras…
