The new Royal Yacht Britannia could be made using seized Russian oligarch’s yachts, a Telegraph associate editor has suggested.
With vessels belonging to Putin’s cronies “bobbing aimlessly in a far-off port”, Christopher Hope suggested that one of them could provide a replacement for the old Britannia, “saving the cash-strapped government hundreds of millions of pounds at the height of the cost-of-living crisis.”
It is understood that the final design for Britain’s new national flagship could be unveiled ahead of the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee celebrations, with a new national shipbuilding strategy committing to unveiling the design.
But the £250 million vanity project has provoked outrage at a time when countless numbers of people are expected to be pushed below the poverty line.
Poverty
As many as 1.3 million Brits – including half a million children – are expected to be plunged into poverty after Rishi Sunak’s Spring Statement, devastating new analysis has revealed.
A typical working-age household will see their real income fall by four per cent next year – a loss of around £1,100, the Resolution Foundation think-tank said.
It also found that only those earning between £49,100 and £50,300 will pay less income tax in 2024-25 – while only those earning between £11,000 and £13,500 will pay less tax and national insurance.
Funding Brittania
Finding alternative funding for Brittania, therefore, could be an attractive proposition, and it isn’t without precedent.
Talking to the Telegraph, Richard Johnson-Bryden, author of Britannia – the Official History, says: “The idea of converting an existing superyacht into an economic replacement royal yacht is nothing new.
“After the Second World War, a number of large motor yachts were evaluated as economic replacements for HMY Victoria & Albert, including the German yacht Grille, which was described as Hitler’s ‘royal yacht’, even though no evidence existed at the time to prove that Hitler used her in such a capacity.”
George VI, the Queen’s father, then made it clear that he would “accept a rebuilt Grille, if there was no other way of giving him a seagoing yacht”, Johnson-Bryden says.
A further option was Turkey’s desire to sell the yacht Savarona, purchased for Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the late president.
None of these schemes came to fruition – but they seem to have given some food for thought.
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