Tuesday, November 18, 2008

Time for the media & public to ask about the Royal Navy

The timing was perfect, the story of the hijacked oil tanker off Kenya appearing in the same bulletin as news that the largest LNG tanker yet has arrived at the UK and will form an important future part of our energy supply. The timing perfect as hopefully many people would be able to add 2 to 2 and make 5. If tankers loaded full of energy from the Middle East are to be part of our energy future then surely it would be a bad thing if they are hijacked en route right? Well hopefully it was a brief thought before attention changed to Strictly Come Sequins.



And maybe members of the public might now think about the Royal Navy and whether it is capable of protecting our energy shipments. So the time has come for the media to reveal the state of the surface fleet, how much it has declined in numbers under Labour and to ask if it can still meet the needs of our future security and whether it is ready for it's vital future role (now of course i know and you should know it has always been vital but i fear the mass of the public do not appreciate that and think all those goods on the shelves of Tesco appear by magic from the far off lands where they are grown/made).

This would require politicians and the public taking defence seriously however. Which tends to only happen when something bad has happened and the horse has already bolted. Some people have also expressed the opinion that the money spent on the navy and projects like CVF was wasted and that money should instead be spent on the troops fighting in AFghanistan and Iraq currently. OK back onto X Factor then, truly important matters.

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