Ministers want to waste more of our money on a yacht for the Queen – again

Last Updated: October 13, 2016By
The Royal Yacht Britannia, pictured in 1977 [Image: Getty].

The Royal Yacht Britannia, pictured in 1977 [Image: Getty].

Outstanding.

Only yesterday, I was writing about the colossal waste of money that is the Garden Bridge project in London, where £23 million of public money may be wasted – enough to pay ESA for 3,833 claimants for a year.

Now we learn that Conservative MPs want to give the Queen another yacht – at a cost of £100 million that could be better-used elsewhere, perhaps on benefit payments for a further £16,666 sick people for a year.

Ah, but the last Royal Yacht secured trade deals worth billions between 1991 and 1995, they argue.

Sure – but times have changed hugely since then. With no guarantees, this is the equivalent of burning £50 notes in the faces of the poor.

Interestingly, Tories seem to have a habit of trying to give Her Majesty enormously expensive boats. Michael Gove suggested it during the Coalition Parliament, as a way of celebrating her Diamond Jubilee.

When he suggested it, back in January 2012, the cost was said to be £60 million. Why has it nearly doubled in the years since?

At least we have an answer to my question of the time – whether Tories try to spend our money on such unnecessary lavishments habitually.

Yes. Yes they do.

Perhaps Conservative MPs should be searched for matches and cigarette lighters before being allowed into the Treasury.

Ministers are apparently considering investing in a new royal yacht Britannia.

Apparently the ship, which would cost £100 million, would help boost the country’s floundering economy by securing trade deals post-Brexit.

According to the Telegraph some 100 Tory MPs – a third of the whole [Parliamentary] party – are now backing a campaign calling for a ministerial panel to examine the case for a new ship.

Source: Ministers want to bring back £100 million royal yacht Britannia | Metro News

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22 Comments

  1. joanna October 13, 2016 at 1:44 am - Reply

    And they Dare to call disabled scroungers!!! Let her buy her own boat, like she actually Needs one, to me the royal family have become a waste of space! I know, many people are going to say, that they bring in money, but where exactly does it go?!!!

  2. Rupert Mitchell (@rupert_rrl) October 13, 2016 at 7:10 am - Reply

    For the Conservative government to even consider such an extravagance in these times does nothing to alter my opinion that the country made the very worst decision when it voted it back in.

    We have talks of cutting back on so many essential public services, the problems facing us after turning our backs on the EU, the dreadful situation of little refugee children being left without help and yet this enormous waste of public money is allowed to be even mentioned! If the Queen wanted another Royal Yacht I feel certain that she could easily afford to commission one and pay for it herself.

  3. NMac October 13, 2016 at 7:27 am - Reply

    The £100-million cost of building such a white elephant would only be a fraction of the total cost. The 25-year manning, running, maintenance and refit costs would be absolutely astronomical. These Tory cretins are yearning for the days of Empire and cannot come to terms with the fact that the Empire is dead and gone, and will never return.

  4. Thomas Walker October 13, 2016 at 8:35 am - Reply

    With a little luck she won’t see another Christmas, so no need for one.

    • Mike Sivier October 13, 2016 at 12:18 pm - Reply

      There will still be a Royal Family, though.

      • chriskitcher October 13, 2016 at 2:56 pm - Reply

        What we should do is sterilise all of the royals including the young ones and this way they would become extinct through non reproduction and save us all the blood bath of executing them.

        • Mike Sivier October 13, 2016 at 6:35 pm - Reply

          I think the law might have something to say about that!
          It would be a serious assault.

      • chriskitcher October 14, 2016 at 12:26 pm - Reply

        Not if you give them the option of being sterilised or shot.

  5. casalealex October 13, 2016 at 9:16 am - Reply

    If having a yacht, paid for by with the people’s money, supposedly brings in ‘billions in trade’, why does it have to be given to the Queen? It should belong to the people. Also, how much does it cost us for the upkeep, maintenance and running of this ‘asset’?

  6. Dez October 13, 2016 at 9:21 am - Reply

    Jeez 100 Cons want to debate what is a no brainer no wonder this country is in such a state. Easy….get Mother T to actually ask the queen and her family if this is something that they want……I believe they are more sensible than our Con chums and will say no thanks use the taxpayers money more wisely and on better projects. What about just borrowing the Greens new mega million BHS super boat when he is not using it……and let him keep his unjustified knighthood in return

  7. wildswimmerpete October 13, 2016 at 10:44 am - Reply

    Should the Tories commission a new Royal Yacht it should be built in the UK with us benefiting from UK jobs and employees’ taxes and N.I. contributions. But I suspect the Tories will give the job to China or Korea. At least our old Royal Yacht is now berthed in Edinburgh, cared for by a charitable trust and earning her keep by giving enjoyment to the public.

  8. Roland October 13, 2016 at 12:10 pm - Reply

    She as the money let her buy it

  9. Brian October 13, 2016 at 1:27 pm - Reply

    The customised Voyager A330 that Cameron ordered was used once, the expense excused as justifiable to reduce costs. Now, currying favour with the Queen at the expense of taxpayers brings a whole new meaning to Cameron’s ‘Hard working families’ toiling to right Osborn’s economy. Self serving does not even begin to describe these cretins, it’s comparable to a languishing 19th century African State whose dictator has palaces built while the people starve. This is yet another prime example of the mindset many politicians fail to recognize as egocentric. T. Mays protestations of serving the population in a fair way, only days ago, ring hollow. They have no shame, it is useless to try and reason with them, it is in their pathology, they are born & bred with this condition, nurtured from Eaton and accede to their position with little or no merit and disease politics with their self interest. We have to expect such idiocy, as until there is a purge of these manufactured parasites, nothing will change, and they know it.

  10. Anna Zimmerman October 13, 2016 at 2:07 pm - Reply

    Anyone outraged by this (ie, any reasonably sane person) please consider joining Republic, who are campaigning for a fully democratic constitution (including the abolition of the monarchy), rather than the patch job riddled with archaic privilege we have at the moment.

    • Douglas Ward October 13, 2016 at 9:45 pm - Reply

      Your remarks are spot on. Tory Toadyism has no bounds, especially when spending our money!

    • Brian October 14, 2016 at 12:02 am - Reply

      I’m sure many don’t have a problem with the monarchy, it’s the attempted politicization of it that sucks.

  11. Lin Wren October 13, 2016 at 3:48 pm - Reply

    Totally wrong considering how many people in this country are in poverty or sanctioned & penalised for being disabled & poor. This Gov is taking the mick

  12. mohandeer October 13, 2016 at 6:31 pm - Reply

    Welll it’s not like we have ‘owt else the money could be better spent on – like the NHS, education, pensioners, disabled and job creation for youngsters leaving school.

  13. Joan Edington October 13, 2016 at 6:48 pm - Reply

    This was in our papers a week or so back because of an even stupider idea. Boris thought that they ought to remove the old Royal Yacht from Leith, where she is now docked as a museum, and bring her back into service. It didn’t matter that she was deemed past her life-span nearly 20 years ago, she has no propellors and there are virtually no maintenace people around able to work on her old steam engines.

    In addition to this, when Britannia was de-commissioned, the Queen was asked if she wanted a new one. She said herself that she didn’t want one and that there was no place for such a vessel in modern times for use as a diplomatic method of transport. Missions fly rather than spend weeks steaming the oceans.

    This is purely Tories looking for a ststus boost and harking back to BritNat Empire.

  14. Sven Wraight October 13, 2016 at 8:50 pm - Reply

    “According to the Telegraph some 100 Tory MPs – a third of the whole [Parliamentary] party – are now backing a campaign calling for a ministerial panel to examine the case for a new ship.”
    I suppose some just want proof this is a foolish idea and a panel would provide good evidence of that? But how many of that 100 have financial ties to shipbuilding businesses that give them less right to wield power here than Scottish MPs voting on allegedly solely English issues?

  15. Rik October 14, 2016 at 4:13 pm - Reply

    Maybe she can buy a second hand one from Sir P.Green?

    • Michael Broadhurst October 15, 2016 at 11:55 pm - Reply

      haha yes thats the answer,as long as she pays for it.

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