When Britain was the centre of the first genuinely global imperium, Britannia ruled the waves.
Navies were an important indicator of geo-political power, especially after the Silk Road was closed off in 1453 with the fall of the Byzantine Empire.
In the second half of the 17th century, the Dutch had the biggest navy in the world.
England fought four wars against their neighbours during that period, mainly naval affairs, and lost all of them.
It is undeniable that the Raid on the Medway in the Second Anglo-Dutch War (1665-1667) remains the most humiliating defeat ever inflicted on a naval force from these islands.
The forces of the Dutch Republic under the command of Michiel Adriaenszoon de Ruyter battered the English, who lost 13 ships. Two vessels were captured, with 30 ships scuttled.
To rub it in, the raiders carried off the pride of the English navy HMS Royal Charles.
It is said that as this military disaster unfolded, King Charles II was chasing a moth around his mistress’s bedroom!
There really is no way to dress it up for the gammons who follow Farage.
In the time of Samuel Pepys, the English were a second-rate maritime force.
Unsurprisingly, the Dutch viewed the so-called Glorious Revolution of 1688 as the natural expression of their dominance over England during that period.
With the imperialist marriage of 1707, the English and Scots got one with building their empire, and that meant having a proper navy.
What is undeniable IS that after the battle of Trafalgar in 1805, Great Britain controlled the sea lanes of the world and would do for the rest of the 19th century.
Britain’s slow-burn loss of pre-eminence on the global stage in the 20th century can be tracked by looking at the decline of its naval power.
For further reading, look up the Washington Conference Naval Conference (1921-1922).
It effectively signalled that Britain’s place as the number one on the high seas was coming to an end.
Then the destroyers-for-bases deal in September 1940 was Uncle Sam having their ex-colonial power over a barrel after Dunkirk.
Today the US Navy is bigger than the next dozen navies put together.
The idea that Britain is a major naval power in the 21st century is the stuff of satire.
Since the Suez Crisis, many Brits have clung to the fig leaf that, if it comes to it, they’re a nuclear power.
This allows them to still pretend that they’re in the global big league.
It is a comforting fiction for many in the Westminster elite that their nukes are entirely under British control.
This Guardian piece by Richard Norton-Taylor from 2014 is worth your time.
In it he quoted a parliamentary cross-party report:
“If the United States were to withdraw their cooperation completely, the UK nuclear capability would probably have a life expectancy measured in months rather than years”.
This excellent piece in Politico by Jakes Wallis Simons in 2015 nails the facts on Britain’s nuclear dependency on the USA.
So, not so independent after all…
Moreover, it is probably just as well as they no longer rely upon Halford’s for securing these awful weapons.
This BBC piece from 2007 has never been denied.
Yes, a bicycle lock.
Jaysus.
As for the world-ending stuff on the submarines, people in the defence world seriously doubt that the Americans would allow the Brits to play with these unsupervised in the era of Charles III.
Therefore, I suppressed a slightly concerned giggle when I saw this piece in the Guardian.
Yes, it is a serious matter; nuclear always is, and that’s why it should be handled with care.
In fairness, there are still some jolly japes by Brits on the high seas.
Baroness Mone, OBE, was very proud of her new yacht.
Then she kinda wasn’t.
It went off the grid, but these smashing folk tracked it down in the Mediterranean.
For background, this excellent piece in the Guardian gives the full skinny on the bold baroness.
Redolent of an African kleptocracy.
Her other business dealings have been rather colourful.
There was even a whiff of the old EBTs at one point!
So from Medway to Medpro, Britannia waives the rules.
Perhaps the inhabitants of that island cannot see what the rest of us can clearly discern.
I’m assured that the featured image hasn’t been digitally altered, and the typo comes as standard in that model.
If they’re going to be geo-politically accurate as well as grammatically correct, then future iterations might only show ONE island.
More and more people here are starting to Think 32.
That is largely due to the impact of Brexit on the thinking of people in the Six Counties.
That loyalist hoodie for a loyalist hood DOES capture the post-Brexit Zeitgeist rather well in many parts of Blighty.
This year will see a gold coach in the land of food banks.
The ex-empire continues to decline by any reliable metric.
Like Sevco, if they stop pretending, there might be a way forward.
At the moment, like the Royal Navy chaps, they seem to be using glue.
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I lived in the heart of London (Debatable that it’s got one.) for 25 yrs. Military history is a hobby of mine, any time that i discussed the brit empire with any of the locals, one of the things that always stuck out to me, even with my best mate, who was a Londoner, was the entire disconnect collectively on their part from what the brit empire actually was, and what brit forces actually represented and actually did, and the political & economic will behind it.
They would sit and talk about repressive and evil regimes, however, it never dropped with them that the brit empire came into that bracket in any way shape or form.
An artist friend of mine was approached to do illustrations for a publisher doing queen victoria’s enemies, when he asked how many illustrations they were proposing for the book, the guy said to him ” oh, it’s four books”. Enough said.
When i left London i moved to Helensburgh, Faslane & Coulport are right on it’s doorstep. The number of security breaches were a local joke, including an Irish couple of tourists driving about the base sightseeing before they got dug.
Protesters once managed to graffiti one of the subs. And on it went.
Also the amount of safety breached registered at over 500 for the last four years.
The great nuclear deterrent, walk into any local pub and they could tell you how much of the fleet was in harbour, usually allegedly down to being out of commission.