All the clocks on the Royal Yacht Britannia, now moored next to the blue car park at the Ocean Terminal shopping center in Leith, near Edinburgh, read the same time: 15:01. That was the moment on December 11, 1997, when the Queen disembarked the ship for the last time, famously crying, as a Royal Navy band played farewell to the soon-to-be-conserved ship.
No one, not even the Queen herself, can seriously expect to see another royal yacht. But 25 years later, here we are. On Thursday, as the country recovered from emergency temperatures and amid an escalating cost-of-living disaster, Liz Truss sought to bolster her case to be Britain’s next prime minister by pledging support for another major national ship .
“I really support the idea of promoting our trade around the world,” she told reporters in Peterborough. But – new broom and all – she wouldn’t do it the Boris Johnson way. Instead of expecting taxpayers to step up to the £200m projected cost, “what I would be looking for is to get investment in a yacht, expecting the private sector to help with that to make it financially viable”. Sponsors with nine-figure marketing budgets are stepping up this way.
What is it about the thought of a great British ship that makes some people so excited? The Daily Telegraph has been campaigning for one since 2016, not coincidentally the same year the paper and its then columnist helped secure Brexit. Johnson announced last May that a new “national flagship” would indeed be built, “reflecting the UK’s thriving status as a great, independent maritime trading nation”.
However, the MoD, £16bn behind in its equipment budget, is unwilling to foot the bill. Truss’s rival Rishi Sunak, while chancellor, also had a falling out with Johnson on the subject, with a source telling the Sunday Times last year there was a “huge row” over funding; another described the yacht’s plans as “a complete and utter couture show”.
The British royal family has had its own yacht since 1660, when Charles II, newly restored to the English throne, bought the small coal ship on which he had escaped to France a decade earlier, lavishly naming it HMY Royal Escape. Eighty-two ships later, Britannia was launched in 1953 with a bottle of “imperial wine” – a convenient substitute for champagne.
The new Queen and her husband were closely involved in its design, making it “quite special”, the Duke told an interviewer in 1995: “All the other places we live in were built by predecessors.” The Britannia was used extensively by the Royal Family and on almost 1,000 state visits, but it became increasingly expensive to maintain and Tony Blair took the decision in 1997 not to use it again, a decision (unlike some others) that was more later he said he was sorry.
However, today it is not clear who really wants a yacht. Not the public either – last year YouGov found just 29% support. Not the royal family, who were unhappy with plans to name a new ship after the Duke of Edinburgh, calling it “not something we asked for”.
Senior military figures are also unenthusiastic, among them Admiral Chris Parry, a former senior naval commander (“To be honest, the narrative around it was really weak. And the designs I’ve seen – I wouldn’t go overboard with it”). And many Tories also agree with Lord (Ken) Clarke, who told the BBC it was “stupid populist nonsense”.
Six weeks before Conservative Party members elect Britain’s prime minister, however, Truss knows that talking about a yacht while saying she wants to finance it privately “allows her to promise support for the idea without it ever happening”. , as Sunder Katwala, director of think tank British Future, noted.
Meanwhile, Sunak is not yet included in his plans for the yacht if he wins, although as some have noted, if necessary, the multi-millionaire could easily finance it himself.
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