Professor John Robertson OBA
Thanks to Legerwood for alerting me to this:
In the Telegraph today, the above and:
With a deck the size of three football pitches, HMS Queen Elizabeth is Britain’s flagship aircraft carrier – a 65,000-ton floating airport designed to wage war anywhere on the planet. On its maiden world tour in 2021, when it cruised the Middle East and prowled the South China Sea, Whitehall hailed it as a new symbol of “Global Britain”.
Yet for all its pomp and splendour, “Big Lizzie”, as it is known, has an embarrassing personal hygiene problem. For the past six months, none of its hot showers has worked properly, because of a shortage of spare parts. The 600 sailors who live on board the ship – currently in dock in Portsmouth – must either disembark to shower blocks on shore, or shiver under the cold tap.
and:
From a faulty propeller shaft that stopped it leading a major Nato exercise last year, through to floods, fires and carping over its military capabilities, it seems to be proof of the old saying that worse things happen at sea. In an article detailing the vessel’s history faults last month, a United States military website described the 1,000ft-long ship as “a giant design flaw”.
This kind of knocks our supposed ‘ferry fiasco’ into a cocked hat, of the kind the Royal Navy once favoured?
Talking-up Scotland 'Albatraz' 
Time marches on regardless and unfortunately for aircraft carrier users these massive waste of taxpayers money have been overtaken by time. Last century they were high technology but now the hypersonic missile makes them as obsolete as a dugout canoe.
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Spot on! White elephants.
Just as the Chinese fighters and missiles used by Pakistan have given India pause.
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yet they were built this century. Someone in the MoD as usual has not been paying attention as to how warfare has changed.
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Is it not shameful how The Telegraph talks the UK down? Why is it devoting attention to aircraft carriers when it should be focused like the BBC, The Herald etc. on Arran’s CalMac ferries?
On the RN’s aircraft carriers from a US perspective:
Steve Balestrieri (February 16, 2025) The Queen Elizabeth-Class Aircraft Carrier Nightmare Just Won’t End (https://www.19fortyfive.com/2025/02/the-queen-elizabeth-class-aircraft-carrier-nightmare-just-wont-end/ )
The 19FortyFive online publication: ‘seeks to tackle the issues and questions raised above through the lens of national security, defense, military analysis, and international politics through expert analysis and commentary.’ In this piece it observes:
‘Issues have beset the Queen Elizabeth-class since her commissioning. The Prince of Wales has only spent 21.3 percent of her time at sea, a report by the UK Parliament in May 2023 stated. The carrier had spent 33 percent of its time undergoing repairs.’
‘Experts warn that without significant upgrades, these carriers won’t survive a modern conflict.’
‘With limited F-35B availability and insufficient escort ships, the UK is considering mothballing one carrier at a time.’
‘The HMS Queen Elizabeth was supposed to take part in Exercise Steadfast Defender last year, but a pre-sailing inspection had identified “an issue with a coupling on [HMS Queen Elizabeth] starboard propellor shaft.” At the time, the Prince of Wales had just returned to sea after its own propeller shaft issues.’
‘A recent report in November revealed to the London Times that in several exercises and multiple scenarios, the two Queen Elizabeth class carriers were sunk due to enemy missiles, which doesn’t bode well for their survival in combat.’
‘Last year, many experts were sounding the alarm about the UK carriers surviving a shooting war with a modern enemy. “There is a dissonance between the UK’s military ambitions and its capabilities,” Richard Barrons, a former head of the UK’s armed forces, told the Financial Times. “The risk is that we get drawn into a conflict and can’t sustain our presence, and this exposes a strategic weakness.”
‘The Queen Elizabeth class of aircraft carriers have had a poor availability record and the Royal Navy doesn’t possess the assets around them to protect all of the F-35B aircraft and the carrier itself. Perhaps it is time to revisit the idea of having carriers at all.‘
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And from the UK Defence Journal (February 7, 2023) Big defence projects are usually late and over budget – Why?
‘Today, computer power continually pushes the boundaries of what is possible. Suppliers often don’t know whether a new technology will work and regularly over-promise – while the government is often unsure what it actually needs.’
‘Projects often start with vague ambitions that become detailed during production, and spec changes are one major reason for delays and cost overruns. With the Queen Elizabeth-class aircraft carriers, for example, the take-off and landing mechanisms were changed on several occasions prior to full-scale production.’
‘…. the two Queen Elizabeth-class aircraft carriers cost nearly double the original £3.9 billion estimate. Initially due in 2012, the first did not come into service until 2017, while the second was two years later.
‘The budget for the navy’s Astute class of submarines also roughly doubled, while its six Type 45 destroyers cost 30% more than planned and were two years late.’
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C4News reporting that , “The Prime Minister Keir Starmer, unusually, chose to take only one broadcaster, GB News to Albania”.
GB News ?
GB News ?
“unusually” ?
Really ?
I have to disagree , as I think that will now be, in some situations, more the norm with the likes of Sir Keir Starmer , in that if he takes any media it will be those who are more right wing than left wing (and for Labour and Starmer who the H needs the centre ground anyway politically ).
We all know why he only took GB News as we all know who their viewers traditionally support politically, Starmer wants a piece of that action.
The Daily Record and The Mirror are not sure what the duck is going on but there is always the option for them to keep pretending that all is well, while they mumble the words to ‘Keep the red (with a strong tinge of blue) flag flying’ though TBH they , as a media, are both getting just as bad as the Labour party that they both , as a client media , support.
Meanwhile as for the Trade Unions , well what is their bloody excuse in them still supporting and helping to finance a Starmer led Labour party .
Are the ones higher up the chain in these Trade Unions now gorging themselves on the benefits they gain via their own elevated positions while forgetting the true purpose of the ‘Union’s’ work as in their employer.
Trade Unions for the working man and woman is secondary it seems and even, dare I say, not that significant compared to these Trade Unions still blindly and slavishly aligning themselves with a Starmer led Labour party who , as a political party, have now morphed into a cheap imitation of the Tory party and also an embarrassing poundshop version of Reform UK party , aka a private company with shareholders.
I don’t know about anyone else but I think Starmer is going to do to Labour what Boris Johnson and Liz Truss did to the Tory party, that is totally destroy them.
I for one will not shed a tear as they need to reap what they have sown. (long overdue IMO).
Not really sown though is it, more what they , Labour, have thrown over everything and everyone (non wealthy) , as in manure aka sh*te, as now everything in their UK, is in all honesty , completely and utterly sh*te.
Who is advising Starmer ?
Is it perhaps a close friend and confidante of Nigel Farage or Liz Truss ? Ha Ha
I mean he , Starmer, just looks so needy , so desperate and so very very pathetic and fake and it also confirms everything that Liz Saville Roberts accused him of at PMQ’s on Wednesday.
I mean his pathetic and uncouth non response to Ms Saville Roberts in him saying to her that it was “his belief that she was talking rubbish” when clearly it is he who is the one , as a UK PM and Labour leader ,that is indisputably rubbish at his job.
(As in he, Starmer, is so very very very Cr*p, to continue the theme of manure and sh*te).
I mean just as some people voted against the Tories and not for Labour in the 2024 UK GE. That was the main reason then that Labour won (by default) the UK GE in 2024.
Then now , going forward, we will start to see some of those same people vote against Labour and not really for Reform UK , but Reform UK will pick up their votes because many people have decided (rightly) that both the Tories and Labour are rubbish.
Then ironically when they, those same people, realise (too late) that Reform UK are also just as bad aka rubbish , if not even worse, than the other two……
Then what ?
In Scotland we are more fortunate in that we do have another option , but we unfortunately also have some of the same type of people as England have , who as voters, keep making the same mistakes over and over and over and over again , in who they vote for , while each time that they do this, they then expect different results and outcomes or are some deliberately voting for chaos ?????
BTW Reform UK came second behind the SNP yesterday 15 May in a by-election for Clydebank waterfront ( West Dunbartonshire) . First preferences SNP 1039 (26.1% and so was -16.2%) and Reform UK 768 (26.2% News).
If you know of anyone considering voting for Reform UK next year in Scotland please get them to have a wee look at the below noted Blue Sky account , that anyone can access , even if they do not have a Blue Sky account holder:
The Blue Sky account is called ‘Reform UK exposed ‘.
(Also they can see Nigel Farage – UK Parliament- Registered interests- for his external expenses that he earns outwith his MP’s salary , to see just how much politics is definitely being financially lucrative for him , way way too lucrative , so much so , his earning are within a status of those that we refer to as being the ‘Elites’).
This ‘Reform UK exposed’ account on Blue Sky is great at exposing how various newly elected English councillors for reform UK, who were only elected in the recent English local elections are now already resigning , thus generating yet more by-elections which then involves more expense and more inconvenience to voters in those areas.
Best then to learn from this in Scotland and start to tell people not to waste their time and vote in voting for any candidate from Reform UK or indeed any pro UK party , as buyers remorse is something that is guaranteed. (you can take that, as a prediction, to the bank, I mean look at what has happened with some voters here voting Labour last year in the GE and now look what they have voted for , a terrible UK government).
Vote SNP 2026 via a majority…….
Mind you I suspect the Reform UK political bubble will eventually burst and that they, via their greed , bad policies and incompetence, will be those who stick the pin into their own future political (lack of) hope, in their votes all falling away to a miniscule amount,
If voters think Reform UK are the answer politically then wait until the proverbial you know what hits the fan and those voters really see what Reform UK intend to do if they gain power, best Scotland out of the UK when that happens.
If anyone is still in doubt , then they should look at Trump’s America as a template for Reform UK’s plans for England , an England that Reform UK want to rule over all other nations within the UK, with all political control to eventually be back within WM, London, England.
Liz S
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