[jambutty]

One news item today is that the MOD has signed contracts for two new aircraft carriers at a cost of £4 billion. They will be built in four shipyards around the UK and will provide work for some 10,000 people.

One will be named HMS Queen Elizabeth and the other HMS Prince of Wales.

This raises two issues.

The UK is NOT A WORLD POWER so we don’t need two new carriers even though we are an island nation. It could even be argued that we don’t need even one new carrier. Our current navy is large enough to defend these shores. Our current troops need proper equipment to enable them to carry out Blair’s Folly with a reasonable degree of safety and that £4 billion would be better spent on them.

The other issue is why those names? Traditionally British aircraft carriers have been named Invincible, Indomitable, Indefatigable, Illustrious, Ark Royal, Victorious, Albion, Bulwark, Hermes, Centaur, Audacious, Royal Oak to name just a few. Over 50 years ago there were two carriers being built due to be named HMS Queen Elizabeth and HMS Duke of Edinburgh but both were cancelled in 1966. They should have cancelled the monarchy at the same time.

The choice of those particular names is nothing more than a means of perpetuating the myth of the monarchy. In fact if you look around you will see that over the years we have been quietly brain washed into accepting the monarchy. Golf courses called Royal something. Hospitals named Royal Infirmary, Blackburn Royal, Queens Park Hospital. Royal Mail. The word royal, king, queen or prince crops up all over the place in place names. In fact our whole culture is littered with reminders of the monarchy.