SEAPOWER CONFERENCE – May 2019
This four-day event sponsored by the Royal United Services defence and security arm – a military think-tank – started on May 15 and was attended by the usual top brass of admirals and captains, the aim of which was to ‘test whether apparent change in naval national strategy is by default or design.’ (1)
Quite a mouthful, but a statement I understood referred to is whether the government is putting enough cash in the Royal Navy.
But so far the role of the Merchant Navy and Royal Fleet Auxiliary in naval national strategy wasn’t mentioned. So no surprises there.
And of course, it’s only coincidental that the the sacking of the previous Secretary of State, the Rt Hon Gavin Williamson MP – he of the Huawei security scandal – came so close to this week’s conference. Mr Williamson’s fall from grace is well-documented in the media especially in BBC news (2). Suffice to note though is the lack of experience he had in dealing with military matters in his rise through the Tory ranks to head of defence.
He may or may not have leaked secrets, but what is often baffling is how ministers can appear so under-qualified; you really couldn’t make Mr Williamsons’ case up – an ex-ceramics salesman elected MP for South Staffordshire (3) was ultimately directing the third most powerful military machine in Europe (4). https://www.businessinsider.com. (02.11.18).His switch to defence component procurement from UK to France understandably wasn’t popular, but telling the Russians to “shut up and go away” was an even worse career move ( in the wake of the Salisbury nerve agent scandal). (5)
Anyway, he’s now gone and the new sheriff in town is the Rt Hon Penny Mordaunt MP, the first female defence minister and incidentally, the first woman Royal Naval reservist to be a member of the cabinet. Daughter of an ex-paratrooper – her own military status acting sub-lieutenant at Portsmouth – Mordaunt has also high-level experience at Secretary of International Development, and whether readers are left or right wing it’s plain Mordaunt has shared connections with the guys and girls at sea.
Which brings us to developments connected with what’s left of our Merchant Navy, and just a fortnight into Mordaunt’s tenure is a proposal to direct some international development funding to either build or convert a hospital ship.
Get a woman to do the job better? – maybe, although the planned project was discussed at ministerial level back in 2017 when investigations revealed that the nearest such vessel was RFA Argus. The Argus accomplished first-class work in the Second Gulf War as well as humanitarian relief in the West African ebola outbreak.
However, Argus is not a true hospital ship: the latter are protected under international law with their white hulls and Red Cross or Red Crescent from being attacked or interned; indeed Argus with her helicopters and grey hull is hardly likely to pacify locals whilst landing on a foreign shore.
But using the US Navy’s USNS Comfort and USNS Mercy as examples, these two hospital ships are manned by non-combatant sailors from Military Sealift Command as support for US forces. However, their secondary role is humanitarian relief, latterly operating in places such as Malaysia, Palau and Yap.
Nonetheless, how likely is the defence minister to achieve her aim? Well, quite rightly the electorate can be contemptuous of foreign aid despite much money going to genuine humanitarian relief – who, for example couldn’t be moved by the plight of women and children homeless and starving in Syria? The 2018 tsunami floods in Indonesia as further example.But why are we giving money to nations such as India and China who are also running space programmes? Not to mention the Swiss bank accounts of some African dictators.
What about our own people? – indeed, she is in for a rough ride on this one and the only defusing argument is that of the 0.7% of the overseas aid budget (0.70 pence for every £100 earned in the UK) 15% is used for humanitarian relief of which this country is one of the few to meet the UN’s minimum contribution.
But is there transparency? ‘One Campaign’ – an advocacy organisation set up by the U2 singer Bono – estimates £1.5 bn was being spent without any transparency at all (6) – a criminal waste of money.
Anyway, we either have foreign aid or we don’t. And whether Mrs Mordaunt will have her sails trimmed or not on this one, foreign aid is unlikely to be curtailed.So wouldn’t it be better to invest in a vessel which as well as providing humanitarian relief is also supporting our military? Plus providing work for UK shipyards, employing UK merchant seafarers and furthermore promoting British trade and business. A project close to us where we can see if our taxes are being ripped-off or not? In fact it would put our country in a very favourable light. Imagine that.
1) https://www.rusi.org.conference first_sea_conference_may15_2019
2) https://www.bbc.com. news (12.05.19)
3) https://en.m.wikipedia.org Gavin Williamson (11.05.19)
4) https://www.businessinsider.com – powerful militaries (02.11.19)
5) https://www.bbc.com.news (12.05.19)
6) www.the guardian.com – Billions of UK aid funding (04.02.19)