An issue not raised in the House of Commons Russia Report is how unwillingness of successive UK governments to properly support teaching of languages such as Russian, German, Chinese, Arabic, Portuguese or Turkish at UK schools and unis puts the UK at a strategic disadvantage

Militaries, intel and foreign services can to an extent balance lack of state support for education in languages, but the bigger the pool of school-leavers and graduates with deep knowledge of UK rivals and allies, the wider the range of skilled recruits the UK state can attract

There is a particular obsession with advanced data analysis techniques among UK leadership factions. But without a substantial pool of school-leavers and graduates with deep knowledge of other societies the UK state will not have personnel with the skills to analyse that data

As a kid in 90s Germany I studied French, English and Russian at state grammar school from the age of thirteen. My class was the "Russian" class in my Gymnasium, a legacy of a time when language was a Cold War strategic priority, but now with Ukie, Russian and Yugo diaspora kids