The other thing about the Afghan leak

If you can't protect a spreadsheet, can you protect a nation?

It is fair to say that the Afghan leak has been the dominant story of this week. It is a shocking one, both in terms of the scale of the calamity and the extent to which the government went to cover it up. Much of the discussion has been focused on the immigration aspect. The right has seized upon it as a prime example of both the chaos at our borders and the extent to which governments will go to conceal it. It has been a particular gift to Reform and their outriders, who can use it as a cudgel to beat both Labour and Tories.

So far, however, less attention has been given to another important aspect of this story – the warning signs that should be taken about our armed forces and the MoD. This was a massive mistake by them, one which is going to cost the state vast sums of money, will have significant political ramifications, and could well have gotten people killed. It points to systemic failures in both operations and culture, which can only lead to questioning the broader capabilities of the organisations.

Taken alone, it would be a huge red flag. Yet it comes on the back of a host of other failings. These include the lax security that allowed vandalism by activists at Brize Norton, ongoing issues around sexual harassment of troops, and, of course, the well-worn problems around procurement and delivery. From the outside, it appears that fundamental institutional failings exist across a range of issues. Like other bits of the British state, this raises alarming questions about the condition of the bits that haven't been exposed yet. For the armed forces, this is a particularly acute risk, which can only make us wonder how they would fare when put under the real test of battle conditions. If these episodes are emblematic of a wider rot, parliament and ministers need to get onto it quickly.