In 1957 Prime Minister Harold Macmillan told fellow Conservatives that the country had never had it so good.

That peace and prosperity enjoyed then continues today, to the extent that I fear we have forgotten what a genuine threat really is.

Without being alarmist, the war-drums are sounding ever louder on the Ukranian border.

Mr Putin is amassing 175,000 troops, tanks and heavy artillery there, while demanding explicit guarantees that NATO will back off permanently.

The Russians insist these are essential military exercises, but US intelligence is warning of a ‘multi-front offensive’ as early as the New Year.

Concerns are that Moscow will finish the job which began with the annexation of Crimea in 2014.

It would be a win for Mr Putin, who’s struggling with a sluggish economy and loss of influence in former Warsaw pact countries and Baltic states.

Like most Russians, he also believes that Ukraine, which gives direct access to western Europe, will always be Russian.

In response, Mr Biden is threatening stringent economic sanctions, though his European allies are less keen to poke the bear, due to their reliance on Russia’s oil and gas.

However, I fear that our recent and chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan has emboldened Mr Putin, who no doubt feels the US has been weakened by it.

And it’s not just the US.

Europe cannot afford to continue luxuriating in an orgy of navel gazing, where we spend our time slating each other.

Worryingly, European leaders, with their heads firmly stuck in the sand, have cast China as the devil incarnate, while the imminent threat is far closer to home.

The West needs to wake up, and fast, if it’s to represent and defend all that we hold dear.