2 aircraft carriers (argue amongst yourselves how many aircraft are avaliable), 1 destroyer, 1 frigate and 1 Astute sub. That's the current deployable strength of the Royal Navy ...

My monologue from today’s The Times at One with Andrew Neil Times Radio ROYAL NAVY RIP While US destroyers duke it out with Iranian navy fast boats over the Strait of Hormuz, we learned yesterday that the Royal Navy’s HMS Iron Duke, a Type 23 frigate, was being withdrawn from

Collapse of two party politics explained in two focus group quotes.

Thank you Germany 🇩🇪and Britain 🇬🇧 for sacrificing your economies to save the planet. China appreciates you exporting your manufacturing to provide jobs for their citizens.

Did 1930s UK have anything as advanced as this?

Between today’s anti-semitism seminar - highlighting the Green’s Jew-baiting core - and now this👇🏼 - Labour has used its former ‘Tory Attack Unit’ skills to shaft the Greens. Will be enough to impact Thursday’s voting? A bit late?

If we are to take seriously the assessment that they are just "too broken" to carry on, then we must conclude that the LIFEX refits of Type 23s have been a colossal failure. Only failure that's even greater is the mad assumptions of the 2000s about how long they would live.

We must conclude both that OSD assumptions up to 2009 and beyond were completely insane and based purely on wishful thinking and that LIFEX refits, when they finally took place, achieved very little for their cost. Should have they been carried out at all, becomes the question.

About two months after Robert Francis Prevost became Pope Leo XIV, he put in a call to his bank back home, a close friend, the Rev. Tom McCarthy, told a gathering of Catholics last week. The new pope identified himself as Robert Prevost, saying that he wished to change the phone

Gabriele Molinelli The Royal Navy no longer has a “Third Sea Lord” expert in ship construction or in house naval architects. Procurement decisions are being made by people with no idea what metal fatigue is. These days commercial freighters often only have a 20 year life, not 30.

On the intense dislike for Starmer amongst the public: Obviously a big reason is the fact the public have turned against Labour’s mad policy agenda and general ineffectiveness. But I think there are two reasons for it beyond policy: 1) the sense that Starmer doesn’t seem to

'80% of Labour voters want a “customs union” with the EU. However polling for Queen Mary University London has found only 9% of Labour voters think UK tariff policy should be decided by someone other than the UK govt...exactly what a customs union with the EU would entail.'

Boldly going... for good. ex-HMS Enterprise towed out of Portsmouth this morning - on her way to UK Docks Marine Services Limited Teesside to be refurbished for further service with Bangladeshi Navy. Via Proud of Portsmouth

🇺🇸BREAKING: Someone placed a $920 million crude oil short at 3:40 AM. 70 minutes later Axios reported the US and Iran were close to a deal. Oil dropped 12%. The trade made $125 million in profit. Minutes after that Iran launched the “Persian Gulf Strait Authority” and oil

At the risk of sounding like a stuck record, the problems in UK defence are because of 1. Successive governments 2. The MoD 3. The armed forces senior leadership All must share the blame and anyone pointing fingers at one or the other is, being charitable, mistaken.

Only when there is a collective recognition of this simple fact will there be any improvement. Until then, it is just the guilty flinging virtual dog shit at each other. Amusing, but unproductive.

Brilliant work by Labour ‘attack PR’ experts (McSweeney used to work in that area a few years ago) to really Fisk Polanski. Pity they couldn’t land it all a week earlier imo Either way, suspect Polanski is screwed & soon will resign his Green leadership thetimes.com/article/9bed61…

Stephen Lock Yeah podcasts not covered