My feelings have seldom been as mixed as when I watched Queen
Elizabeth’s great Diamond Jubilee pageant on the Thames — about
1,000 small boats, including a number of Dunkirk veterans,
dragon-boats, steam-tugs and as a centerpiece the Queen’s great
gold and crimson-embellished barge, Spirit of Chartwell,
made a stirring spectacle.
The fact that more than a million people turned out in freezing
rain to watch from the riverbank, as well as countless others who
attended street parties all over Britain, said something about how
much the monarchy is loved.
The Queen, aged 86, and the Duke of Edinburgh, aged 91 (in five
days), stood in that same rain in a rocking boat as it proceeded up
the Thames for those four hours to wave to the crowd as well. That
was inspiring. No wonder a noisy handful of Republicans were
shouted down and apparently driven away.
But there was one glaring absence — the Royal Navy. Though
several of the members of the Royal Family wore naval uniforms, the
only naval vessels to be seen were a couple of relics from World
War II, a single small escort and a few small boats, including one
from the now hulked former Royal Yacht Britannia. There
was also, oddly, a Chinese junk from Hong Kong, which Britain
handed back to communist China with a cascade of somewhat
nauseating Unfreedom Celebrations in 1999.
Previous great Royal occasions such as coronations and jubilees
have been marked by Naval Reviews, with a good part of the fleet
drawn up at anchor off Spithead. Although this is only the second
Diamond Jubilee ever, there is no naval review because there is
virtually no navy.
The
Daily Telegraph quoted one Naval Officer to the effect
that the Ministry of Defence made it clear that no comment was to
be made in public on the subject. “It would have been just too
embarrassing,” he said.
Lord West, a former First Sea Lord, the professional head of the
Navy, said an attempt to stage a review would result only in
national humiliation. “Because the number of ships has reduced so
dramatically the event would be too small to make a meaningful and
sensible fleet review.”
The Telegraph published a photograph of the Queen’s
Coronation Review in 1953, when Britain’s Gross National Product
was a quarter of what it is now. The lines of aircraft carriers,
cruisers, and destroyers stretched to the horizon — 300 ships and
100 aircraft took part. Others were away at the Korean War and at
bases all over the world.
This time there was none, for the navy has, under Prime
Ministers Blair, Brown, and Cameron, been cut to a mere 19 frigates
and destroyers and two small helicopter carriers. Some of these are
supporting operations in Afghanistan and the Falklands have to be
watched.
Amid the rejoicing it gave a dreadfully hollow sound to the
singing of “Land of Hope and Glory” (“Wider still and wider/shall
thy bounds be set/ God who made the mighty/ make thee mightier
yet”) and “Britannia Rules the Waves.” One could see something
Ruritanian in the glittering, bemedalled uniforms of the admirals
with no ships. Because of the weather, there was no fly-past by jet
fighters — the Royal Navy no longer has any, in any event.
“A fleet review is an opportunity for the Queen to see her ships
and sailors and for the men of the Royal Navy to pay their respects
to the monarch,”
said Steve Bush, editor of the naval directory British
Warships & Auxiliaries (now a very short book
indeed). “It is an event of great tradition and spectacle.
The Trafalgar review of 2005 saw more than 100 ships mustered but
almost half were from overseas navies, the biggest being the French
aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle.”
The official line is that the ships that compose the surviving
remnant of the navy are in fact much more capable than their
predecessors. This is true, but other navies have become more
capable too. India, China, and Russia, for example, are expanding
and modernizing their navies for all they are worth. China’s new
navy includes aircraft carriers and sophisticated long-range
missiles. India, not even a maritime nation, last year put on a
Presidential Review for which it assembled considerably more ships
than are in the whole Royal Navy. The Telegraph article
concluded: “Britain, a maritime nation dependent on the sea lanes,
has allowed its blue-water navy to melt away. The reckoning
awaits.”
Men become Prime Ministers because they seek a place in history.
Will Blair, Brown, and Cameron be remembered by history as dastards
who betrayed their country?
One can only hope that those crowds who stood for hours in the
cold rain are a hint that the spirit that made Britain great is not
entirely dead.
