“Boris Johnson will announce within weeks a new national flagship named after the Duke of Edinburgh that will be seen as a successor to the Royal Yacht Britannia,” announced Christopher Hope in the Sunday Telegraph. Assuming that this is correct (and there is no particular reason to doubt it), this will be a personal triumph for Hope, who has long campaigned for a “new national flagship”. In the process he was much ridiculed, but just because an idea is ridiculous does not mean it won’t become government policy.
The new yacht will cost “as much as £200m” but, given this is military procurement, it would be safer to assume that “as much as” means “at least”. There are, however, a number of arguments provided for the project – all of them unconvincing.
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