So fully expect this ship in a bottle
To have its costs well north of £500 million, do a couple of tours then get flogged for less than £100 million because of some catastrophic engineering oversight... Or it crashes into a sandbank.
The cost of the UK's new "national flagship" to replace the Royal Yacht Britannia has already ballooned by £50m in just two months, it was revealed yesterday. At the end of May, Prime Minister Boris Johnson outlined details for a new oceangoing gin palace to schmooze VIPs, negotiate trade deals, and fly the flag for UK Plc. …
That's the flag-wavers who think Britannia still rules the waves.
I've posted some of this before but....Britannia was only retired when her pre and post nuclear strike role was deemed unnecessary and costs became very high. Cold war planners in the UK realised very important facts relatively early on*. Namely that:
One large bunker like the bunker under Box in Wiltshire was not H bomb proof,
The missiles were getting more accurate,
One strike could take out a lot of people in one go.
And the Soviets almost certainly knew where the bunkers were.
So a new Top Secret plan was hatched to send groups consisting of civil servants, senior trade reprentatives/negotiators (UK Supply Agency), ministers etc. to dispersed locations in the period of tension before a likely conflict. This was codenamed PYTHON and a very select few people knew of the existence of it. Officially the plan was still go underground in Wiltshire. Britannia was to host a Python group which wouldn't have included the royals.
These groups would have met up after the bombing had stopped and tried to resupply the country from other nations. If you look up a bloke called Mike Kenner @wellbright on Twitter you can read Gov documents uncovered by Mike you can also read more at https://www.subbrit.org.uk/features/where-did-the-government-go/ by Dr Steve Fox
The Calmac ferries which were constructed for the Secretary of State for Scotland were designed as floating bunkers
*and faster than the US planners.
More like BAe (and watch how costs go into orbit and capabilities are fitted for but not with or just forgotten about entirely *cough* carriers and CATOBAR operation *cough*....given they pretty much build the rest of the UK's surface ships, well unless it gets built in South Korea....
The thing about our esteemed govt, including BoJo and his lackeys, is that they have an unerring habit of coming up with vanity projects in the hope of winning votes.
And no doubt, this little scheme, projected to be built in the UK, will no doubt be awarded to a shipbuilding area where there are lots of floating voters and they will be grateful to have jobs thanks to this scheme...and no doubt will vote for BoJo at the next election, due around 2024, by coincidence (as by then the build will be well underway).
One assumes that this project will not be put out for tender to a South Korean or even Chinese company, who could no doubt build it at a higher specification and for half the price - as of course that won't win them any votes.
Talk to Jeremy Hunt about vanity projects. When I worked in the media Mr Hunt was in charge of the media. Somebody from the DCMS told me he was hoping to leave his mark on every department he worked at. So he was fishing around for something he would be known for after he left the DCMS. The result was Local TV which everybody said there wouldn't be enough advertising money or audience to support. Not daunted he pinched money from the BBC budget to fund the launches. Sadly when that money ran out the predictions came true.
When talking to a doctor at a party I asked what he thought of Jeremy Hunt. He said he'd rather not answer at the party as there were children present and he'd have to swear profusely.
The Royal Research Ship 'Sir David Attenborough', aka 'Boaty McBoatface' only cost £200 million.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RRS_Sir_David_Attenborough
And it has a helipad, diving hatch and a remote controlled submarine.
So my question is, with all the arctic gear, and high tech research equipment, and comms gear for navigating in uncharted and dangerous waters, why would a new Royal yacht have to cost more? (OK so inflation is one answer.)
I doubt that Her Britannic Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II, will personally get much use out of it. It is more for Charles, and William. WTF is it going to be used for? Boris has an unfortunate history of supporting 'big ticket'/'vanity' projects that fail - the London Garden Bridge, suggested by Joanna Lumley was strongly supported by Boris - and the cable car across the Thames by Greenwich has days when literally nobody uses it (and that was before any Covid-19 lockdowns). Boris's repainted royal jet has seen little military use after the paint job and has had very little use by him too*.
Sadly I cannot help feeling that the money for a new Royal Yacht could be far better spend elsewhere (and not just on my pension fund, although all contributions are welcome).
* https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2020/jun/17/paint-job-on-boris-johnson-plane-will-cost-taxpayer-900000-pounds
And he's got another one:
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/government-plane-union-flag-paint-livery-b1820418.html
Even Lewis Hamilton manages with just the one private jet.
I'm going to politely disagree with your suggestion that it's "more for Charles and William". I strongly suspect that the biggest users will be the Foreign Office and assorted ministers. And if the Foreign Minister decides to take his mistress along as an "advisor", then she won't have to go through airport security or be checked into a luxury hotel. She can hide on the boat well away from prying photographers.
The cruise industry has been scrapping quite a few ships due to lack of demand - why doesn't the government pickup one for scrap value and spend £50 million doing it up - that will still be less than the write off cost of Boris' garden bridge folly
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-47228698
...£53million
Apologies for linking to the Sun, but it seems that half the navy might be out of action. Maybe we could fix a couple of destroyers and give them a gaudy paint job.
Let's hope the Royal Navy don't get down to 1 carrier anytime soon at the hands of the Chinese...
I'm sure it will progressively rise over the next few years. Lots of pockets to fill. It's going to be a large one. Seagoing craft are now measured in migrants, and this one is going to be at least 7000 migrants stowage. Technically it will be a carrier, as the drones will need somewhere to take off for the displays, to wow the natives in far flung parts. Not that it will be allowed to dock anywhere (zeta variant).
I hope the BoJo bridge between Northern Ireland and [Independent-to-be] Scotland will be high enough to allow it to sail under.
Do you think we should ask Prince Andrew to be in charge of the 'entertainment' for all those celebs? Nice to maintain a royal link from the Britannia to the Carrie, and he seems to be at a loose end.
Not sure about the Captain. Patrick Stewart (impressive CV, own crew) or Captain Birdseye (the original, properly bearded one)?
Although I like the idea of a Royal Yacht, I'm not sure about having riff raff from the House of Commons infesting it. Perhaps the Tories could stage a leadership coup before Glorious Leader signs any contracts. One wave of his magic pen and the Bank of England are down another hundred million.
I assume Dido, our Queen, will be in overall charge of it.
The swimmy ginny palace is only expected (currently) to cost twice as much to build and outfit as the Covid Summer Food Fund did to run last year (which existed thanks only to the well-aimed boot of Marcus Rashford). Seeing 1.3m kids in poverty get a decent lunch for 12 weeks or seeing Boris and co swanning around selling more arms to dictators -- which would you support?
The timeframe for this floating gin palace ("in the water by 2024") suggests that the real reason for it is as a flag-waving photo opportunity for Bloody Stupid Johnson in the run-up to the next election campaign. It seems rather optimistic to me that it will be ready by then, as it hasn't even been designed yet, so I fully expect it will be cancelled once someone explains to BSJ that it won't be ready in time. Not before plenty of taxpayer cash has been lavished on the project, though.