Skip to main content

The euphoria surrounding a new warship.

http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2014/jul/04/hms-elizabeth-naming-ceremony-hailed-pro-union-occasion


 Britain's largest ever warship, a vast aircraft carrier, has been welcomed into the Royal Navy.


HMS Queen Elizabeth, a four-acre, 65,000-tonne warship


 
The euphoria in the shipyard and the ceremony of christening this ship, has filled our media and television screens. Even before the bottle of Islay malt whiskey had smashed into the hull, (it used to be champagne but the symbolism of "scotch" has not been lost), the hyperbole's had been coming fast and furious.
The new flagship is Britain's largest ever warship,  "a source of inspiration and hope for us all", "a national instrument of power", a national icon to all, and will help to keep the great in Great Britain,". The 280-metre-long and 56-metre-tall HMS Queen Elizabeth cost a mere £3 billion and will be the flagship of the British fleet. Another super carrier, the "Prince of Wales" is currently under construction at Rosyth, to join HMS Queen Elizabeth in a couple of years.
There is however a slight problem with having one, soon to be two, super aircraft carriers showing the flag around the world. We have no aircraft to put on them. We may "borrow" a few aeroplanes from the French (or more probably the Americans) to dot around the flight decks for the sake of appearance, but the fact remains that we do not have any of our own aircraft to equip these ships.
There is an old song which contains the line "But the smile on his face quickly turn to a sneer, when the barman says sadly The pubs got no beer"
Having aircraft carriers without aircraft is equally absurd.



Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Northern Ireland and Brexit. The return of "The Troubles"

Northern Ireland: police attacked in another night of disturbances | Northern Ireland | The Guardian When the "Brexit" debate was still filling our newspapers and our television screens, readers may remember why I had changed my mind since voting to leave at the referendum vote. Apart from the economic arguments, which had become crystal clear after peeling away all the lies and misrepresentations trotted out by Bozo Boris and his "Get Brexit Done" conspirators, there was always the problem of the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. Would it be possible to have a border between the European Union and the United Kingdom where people, goods and services could pass freely between the two nations without customs restrictions, tariffs, duties and all the other formalities? Would it be possible to have one part of the United Kingdom treated differently from other parts of the United Kingdom, particularly when Scotland for example had voted overwhe

The Parliamentary Labour Party conspirators are hatching another coup.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/corbyn-labour-leadership-rebel-mps-a7202641.html Labour MPs plan for Corbyn victory  and plot how to confront an emboldened leader Even for the "Independent", the number and use of unnamed anonymous "sources" in this article is quite astonishing. However, amongst all the usual speculative delusion, there is one factor which causes concern to anyone who believes in the Labour Party, its principles and in he democratic process of the Labour movement. It is abundantly clear that elements within the Parliamentary Labour Party, are even now, planning another coup in the event that Jeremy Corbyn should emerge as winner in the current ballot. The failed coup of earlier this year, has now descended into a sham leadership election, because the conspirators still fail to accept the democratic decision of the Labour party membership and cling to

New Agenda on Sunday is out Sunday, Apr. 28, 2019

https://paper.li/f-1346065353#/ Good morning everyone. Last weeks scare regarding Megan and Harry being sent to live "somewhere in Africa" seems to have been dispelled, at least for the time being. It now seems that the Duke and Duchess of Sussex will take up residence in California.  Unless  they are actually  doing  some proper work in "The Golden State", I hope that they are taken off the civil list so that we do not have to fund their life choice. The nauseating Daily Mail is at it again. A headline this week, which I will not even bother to reproduce here, screams out in disgusting and repulsive bias without any acknowledgement to the factual basis of their "story". Spewing out their usual smears and embellished distortions about Hamas, the IRA, Hezbollah and the rest, the Mail condemns itself with ample justification, for the closure of a "newspaper," which again abuses 10 fold, the privilege of "freedom of t