Last Thursday I was a guest of the Royal Navy and looking over the construction of our latest nuclear powered hunter/killer submarine, HMS Artful, at the construction docks in Barrow-in-Furness.
It was absolutely fascinating and very impressive to see a submarine the length of a full premier division football pitch, four storeys high, being readied for its launch!
These submarines are enormously impressive and a hugely significant element in the projection of naval sea power. For example, just one of these submarines in the area of the Falklands could be expected to sink the entirety of an Argentinian invasion fleet!
In the course of our meeting I was briefed on the general capability of our latest generation of hunter/killer submarines which would certainly be very frightening to any potential enemy; and also on the principles and the general extent of our submarine based nuclear deterrent.
Equally interesting were my discussions with various crew members on the impact of the breakup of the United Kingdom with the prospect of Scottish independence.
All nuclear submarines are currently based at Faslane, but in the event of Scottish independence they would have to be moved to either Portsmouth or Plymouth. The English members of the crew seemed very happy with that prospect, whereas the one Scot that I spoke to seemed to be rather torn, in particular over the question of which nationality he would choose in the event of Scotland becoming independent. He gulped a bit at the thought of having to choose to be English if he wanted to remain in the Royal Navy!
All agreed that Scottish independence would be extremely good for the economy of Barrow in Furness and of Portsmouth and of Plymouth. It might also lead to a resurgence of the dockyards on Tyneside. It maybe therefore that all those towns and those parts of England that would be likely to benefit from naval warship building and servicing etc., would be prime targets for campaigning support to English independence.
What do you think?
There's a report in the Telegraph today confirming there is no capacity in England for the building of complex warships. We suspect that Cameron's decision to concentrate surface warship building in Scotland was a political decision to win 'stay in' votes in Scotland in the independence referendum, yet it could equally persuade others to vote for independence now they've got the powers it gives them.
ReplyDeleteWhatever the outcome of the vote it needs to be seen as an anti-English act. And if the vote is for independence he must be removed from office.
To make such a decision before such an important constitutional vote is, at best, cynical.
You cannot trust a Unionist to act or speak for England.
Yesterday at PMQs he deliberately and carefully avoided using the word England, preferring to use 'regions and nations', going on to mention both Scotland and Wales, but not England.
Cameron is an ass, most of our politicians are asses sadly and don't seem to care one jot about the english people, it's high time we had a clean sweep of politicians generally and started voting in ones who actually give a damn about our country, our heritage and our indiginous people rather than placating the european nonsense and bloody immigrants that we neither want nor need. Police and legal systems need a damn good shake up too, they have all grown far too complacent over the past 30 or 40 years, short sharp shock would do em all good imho !!
ReplyDeleteI see Mr Cameron has appointed a minister for Portsmouth. I expect that the dockyards will soon see a massive retail park so that all those highly trained dockyard workers can be on the minimum wage in some shopping mall. What a waste! Still our car manufacturing plants are booming metal bashing for the Japanese, the Indians et al. And still the French have three car companies and the Germans are selling BMWs to the Chinese. Sadly, we lost our car companies so that certain individuals could line their pockets. And according to Max Keiser on Russia Today the City of London is now the world centre for financial corruption and we might have to bail out the money laundering HSBC next. How can we still be proud of a country of lions led not by donkeys but by vultures.
ReplyDeleteI hope it sink`s on it`s first voyage, straight to the bottom of the sea. Deanobaggio69, aka Dean Cookson.
ReplyDeleteWhy would you wish such a thing?
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