Aircraft carriers for the UK

For a change, I'm going to use this space to pontificate.  Last week the government delayed plans to construct two aircraft carriers for the Royal Navy.  The press seemed to be full of comment articles suggesting that aircraft carriers are not needed and that they are only wanted by the arms business and shipyard workers, whereas what the armed forces really need is better equipment for the army.  This is nonsense, in at least three ways.

First, the government is taking other measures, such as cutting VAT, to stimulate the dire state of the economy.  It makes no sense to cut shipyard jobs in this economic climate.

Second, if the UK is looking to cut expensive and ineffective arms purchases, the obvious one to cut would be the renewal of the ICBM submarine fleet.  This fleet serves no use whatsoever and its renewal breaks our commitments under the nuclear proliferation treaty.

Third, aircraft carriers are pretty much the only type of fighting ship that matter.   Their aircraft can defend against enemy submarines, surface ships and aircraft better than any surface ship.  They can also scout further and support land missions.  Other ships have their uses (e.g. anti-piracy, patrolling coastal limits, mine sweeping, adding extra defence to the carriers, carrying troops and cargo), but carriers are far more effective.  This is why the US Navy's 13 battle groups are each based around a carrier.

You could argue that Britain shouldn't be undertaking missions around the world, nor preparing to fight naval battles of any sort.  But if that were the government's aim, it should be cutting all the other ships too.

Lewis Page wrote an excellent article about the uselessness of frigates for Prospect a few years ago.  Last week we wrote this article for The Register, which comments further on the government's decisions.  I'm not sure about his claims concerning the RAF, but it's not impossible by any means.  Come to think of it, we don't really need the RAF so much, these days. 

A happy birthday

I haven't really celebrated my birthday for the past few years.  It always got eclipsed by our preparations for xmas.  I was usually travelling abroad in November which didn't leave much time to plan for anything else.

This year I decided I was fed up with all that, so I held a "Sod Christmas, It's my birthday" party.  I started off wondering if I still knew enough people to invite, beyond our usual games/DVD club mix and the book circle, but that was just paranoia.  In fact I could have invited more people, so apologies to those of you who I omitted; next time I'll do better.  Thank you to everyone who came; I thoroughly enjoyed it.  It was good to see everyone. 

I over-catered somewhat, leaving enough to supply chocolates to my work colleagues, hnibbles for our gaming night tomorrow and to contribute to A&N's xmas eve do next week.  I also bought some cocktail ingredients which we didn't get around to using either.  Maybe I'll have to organise a cocktails night for Hogmanay or something.

My actual birthday was a work day, so was pretty ordinary apart from the tiredness resulting from unaccustomed partying at the weekend.  Mrs Henry-the-Cow's pile of presents included a couple of new games - Race for the Galaxy and 1861: The Railroads of the Russian Empire, which I look forward to playing soon.  They're quite a contrast: RftG takes less than an hour, while 1861 takes from 4-8 hours.