Thin Pinstriped Line

  The British Government and the Government of Mauritius have, in principle agreed a deal to hand over sovereignty of the Chagos Archipelago, while retaining the right for British and American forces to continue to operate out of the military base in Diego Garcia. There has been considerable controversy around it in the UK, with it being seen as a form of ‘sell out’ or risk to national security for British and American interests, while benefitting China in the long run. Concerns have also been raised about the cost of the arrangements, with the UK paying an average of £101m per year to retain the site over 99 years. The counter view to this is that the deal represents a pragmatic outcome that ensures the UK retains access to the island facilities, while ensuring it remains on the right side of international law.   From a UK perspective the long-term legality of sovereignty had been under challenge following a series of rulings by the International Court of Justice , and the...

  The Royal Navy has sailed a force of warships from their home ports, setting out on a global journey to the Indo-Pacific, to showcase British and NATO maritime power and prestige. Led by the aircraft carrier HMS PRINCE OF WALES (PWLS), and escorted by British, Canadian and Norwegian vessels, this is the highest profile Royal Navy deployment in years – but is it actually worth the effort to show the RN as a truly global force, or is it a Potemkin operation by a failing navy desperate to recall its now long gone glory days? The goal of the Carrier Strike Group (CSG) deployment is to send a task group, that is intentionally international by design and construct, to carry out a global deployment to work with partner nations and deepen defence relationships. This construct is part of a years long rebalancing effort for the Royal Navy, which has now mostly moved away from the notion of long-distance deployments of escort ships to far flung waters, and now either relies on forward pre...

  In 2025 the subject of Russian monitoring of British waters and vessels remains newsworthy. In April the Russian Ambassador to the UK confirmed that the Russians did attempt to monitor Royal Navy submarines, yet this is hardly new or novel. Throughout the Cold War, off the cold waters of Malin Head, the most northerly point of the island of Ireland, a small Soviet trawler would spend months at a time sitting and listening. Her target was not fish, but submarines. This vessel was intended to act as an intelligence collector, targeting the major US and Royal Navy submarine bases on the Clyde, to try and collect invaluable intelligence on the movements and characteristics of their submarines. The AGI was seen as a genuine threat to national security and led to a range of measures to counter its presence and protect the most sensitive national secrets. The Russians are known to have maintained converted trawlers off Malin Head and elsewhere for decades. By the 1980s there was growi...

The Royal Yacht BRITANNIA remains one of the most timeless and beautiful vessels ever built in the United Kingdom. Designed in the early 1950s to replace the previous Royal Yacht ‘VICTORIA & ALBERT’, she served for over 40 years as a very visible symbol of the British Monarchy and State. Cruising the world, she was present at fleet reviews, independence parades, state visits and even participated in an evacuation. As a floating palace, embassy for the United Kingdom and location for diplomatic talks and trade deals, BRITANNIA was the embodiment of the phrase ‘Soft Power’. Yet she was also to be the last of 83 Royal Yachts and was paid off without replacement in 1997. This blog article explores the near decade long sage of the decision not to replace her, and for the first time ever, brings together the full story of the Royal Yacht replacement that was not to be. Commissioned in 1954, the BRITANNIA was designed in an era when long haul travel was mostly carried out by ship. Travel ...