Now THIS is what our country really needs!

[Matblack]

At a time when we could be heading into recession and the government are taxing people on the car they buy rather than the petrol they use to screw every last drop out of the tax payer then what we really need is two aircraft carriers the size of the QE2 costing £3.2b.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7486683.stm

Yes or No?

I'd say probably not to be honest but at least we'll have somewhere to park our out of date Eurofighters

MB

[leowyatt]

Nope we don't need them!

[Admiral Huddy]

No but then there's a lot of other things the government don't need to spend money on like hosting and housing imigrants, keeping child murderers locked away in prison when they should be executed to save the tax payers money, and people on unneccessary benefit. Grrrrrr

[SCM]

Yes we do need them as the existing carriers are reaching the end of their useful life and the carriers are to be built in unemployment blackspots in Rosyths case so the local economy will be boosted, more taxes being paid etc. and more people working getting off benefits.

So it might cost us a lot of cash now but there will be benefits as well from reduced unemployment and more taxes coming back from wages.

SCM

[Desmo]

I don't have a problem with spending money on defences and military equipment like this. There are plenty more places we can start to make savings.

[Feek]

I'm in favour, the ultimate big boy's toy. And I'm a big boy.

[Matblack]

Can anyone tell me what exactly we need them for?

MB

[Desmo]

Shooting stuff :D

Seriously though, I don't proclaim to know the ins and outs of it all, but we are one of the main countries who seem to get involved in issues around the world (rightly or wrongly, that's a whole different discussion). If we are expecting to ship our military around the world along with masses of equipment, we need the right stuff to do it.

[SCM]

In the past we did have bigger carriers than we have right now but over time they were scrapped in favour of smaller carriers to suit our needs at the time. With the world changing as it is now the carriers we have aren't suitable to the roles we need of them and dont carry the fire power to attack or defend them properly.

It is also a modernisation of a part of our armed forces that has been neglected for too long and it fits in with the rest of the new ship building and decommissioning of older types of ships. So we might be paying a lot for them but we are also scrapping ships and modernising our fleet and as an island nation we do need a decent Royal Navy.

SCM

[Chuckles]

Total waste of money. The point of an armed forces should be to give you the capacity to defend you own borders, not the capacity to wage agressive wars.

Stikes me as a £3.2bn penis-extension. Kinda like a rich businessman's yacht :p

[Matblack]

just watching a report on the news, saying it's going to create at least 10,000 jobs over the next 10 years or so.

So would investing the money in public services :).

What will happen to those 10,000 once they have finished building the boats?

MB

[leowyatt]

What will happen to those 10,000 once they have finished building the boats?

They'll all get a P45.

[Matblack]

They'll all get a P45.

Yes, I suspect you are right, I just feel it would be better to use this kind of money to build sustainable businesses/ services rather than spend it all on a s****y new fleet of big boats which are esentially for fighting wars in foreign lands rather than defending our own shores :confused:

Yes the current generation of ships is getting past it but do they NEED replacing, do we NEED two of them. We are throwing money at Iraq and Afganistan like war is going out of fashion maybe we should finish what we started before we tool up for the next one?

MB

[Admiral Huddy]

Can anyone tell me what exactly we need them for?

MB


Not nowing to much about these sort of things, I'm wondering if it some kind on UN requirement. After all, this country has nothing to defend against anymore since the day the commonwealth started shriking and we decided to become multi-cultural.

[loki]

I think it's good that the Navy is getting investment to upgrade our every aging fleet. My only concern is some of the supposed justification behind it being we need to mobilise in foreign countries

[Von Smallhausen]

Britain has national interests abroad and requires armed forces as so other nations. Being an island nation, a strong Navy is a must and interests above are oil installations in the north sea, the Iraq and Afghan theatres and future flashpoints that may require a military presence.

The three carriers we had are now two with one being in mothballs and two out of date and requiring replacements. Defence spending is still a neccessity and aircraft carriers are an excellent platform to launch military operations in the national interest.

I say yes.

[Mark]

Seems most people here have forgotten about the British Dependant Territories. Oh how the memories fade. Anyone recall a certain Argentinian despot with aspirations after the Falklands?

I'm not suggesting such places are in any imminent danger, but that doesn't mean we should abdicate our duty to defend them.

Also, despite some very well-publicised bad eggs and equipment blunders, we still have one of the best armed forces in the world, and frankly they deserve the best.

That'll be a yes from me then.