New Royal Yacht Would Be Fitting Tribute
Paul Linford agrees with Michael Gove that is time we had a new Royal Yacht.
17 Jan 2012, 12:00
Royal Yacht Britannia
I never thought I would find myself agreeing with Michael Gove, but I couldn't help but be a bit depressed by the initial reaction to the proposal for a new Royal Yacht yesterday.
After a story appeared in The Guardian suggesting - wrongly as it turned out - that Mr Gove had advocated public funding for a new vessel, the government machine went into overdrive to insist that no taxpayers' money would be spent on it.
In retrospect, the leak looks suspiciously like a co-ordinated attempt by the Lib Dems to torpedo the plan before it even left the drawing-board.
Thankfully, it seems from today's coverage that the government is indeed giving serious consideration to the Daily Mail's proposal for a new, privately-funded yacht to mark the Diamond Jubilee.
It is only right that a Conservative-led government should be doing this in view of the wrong that was perpetrated by a previous Tory administration in deciding to scrap the Royal Yacht Britannia.
I thought it was shameful that a Conservative government should do this, especially at a time of rising economic prosperity, and agreed with John Redwood - another first - when he said as much during the 1995 Tory leadership contest.
The Queen has given 60 years of dedicated service to this country, providing a unifying force for an increasingly diverse nation, and I, for one, would have been happy to see at least some taxpayers' money spent on the project.
But whoever ends up paying for it, putting right this wrong - and providing a new national flagship for the 21st century - is surely the very least we could do for her in her Jubilee year.
Comments (3)
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I like the idea of returning to the Victorian notion of 'public subscription', whereby statues etc were paid for by the public making contributions to the cost. However i do think it should be the public - i.e. individuals - who are the subscribers rather than companies (who are spending their shareholders' money, on which matter said shareholders have very little say apart from moaning at the AGM) - making the contributions as this would indeed be an expression of the public's esteem for the Queen.
May I also suggest replacing the word 'yacht' which has all sorts of negative connotations (oligarchs etc.) and doesn't really suit the current mood and situation. Perhaps 'British Flagship'?
18/01/2012 09:25Why on earth would we want to subscribe towards a new boat for the Royal family? When would they have the opportunity to use it on our behalf? What would be its purpose when everyone needs to fly everywhere for speed?
It might be a very 'nice' idea but it should be no more than that; mothball it!
18/01/2012 15:38I think the idea of subscription would be a very real test of the popularity or otherwise of the project. If the cost was fully subscribed by loyal subjects, fine, all well and good. If not, and if people agreed with jose's comment, that would send a powerful message to the proposers and the project would not go ahead.
The last thing we want is the government deciding to support such a project on our behalf. Thankfully, and rightly, there seems little prospect of that happening.
Perhaps Mr Gove might like to don a Victorian frock coat and act as Chair of the Subscription Committee.
19/01/2012 10:12