Jon Bright (London, OK): Overshadowed by the headlines of his announcement about a unified border police and extending detention, Gordon Brown has approved the decision to build two vast aircraft carriers, which according to Richard Norton Taylor in the Guardian have already been given their respective names, HMS Queen Elizabeth and HMS Prince of Wales. If delivered on time they will sail out to sea battle-ready and full of Blairite hard power in 2014 and 2016. How will the Kingdom be safe for seven years without one?
Sorry, this is no laughing matter, even if it does have a last days of the Soviet Union feel about it. Paul Rogers, who has long warned in his oD columns against this folly, has just published an assessment written in anger laced with sorrow, at the stupendously expensive stupidity. The article should be read on openDemocracy's front page and can be commented on here, this is Paul's conclusion:
What is really dismaying at this early stage of the Gordon Brown government is the missed opportunity to take a hard look at Britain's defence policy and engage in a fundamental review of the country's long-term security needs. Instead, it seems that in this key area of Whitehall - notwithstanding the rhetoric of change from the new prime minister - it is business as usual.
There is a remote possibility that wiser counsel will prevail, perhaps after the next election (due by 2010, expected in 2009, but increasingly likely in 2008) when a re-elected Brown government might have the confidence and authority to start thinking the unthinkable. For now, though, the moment is lost; and so for the time being is any chance of innovative thinking on the real security issues facing Britain and the world in the 21st century.
