MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency
Falklands War carrier HMS Illustrious headed for scrapping in Turkey
Replacements are years away and still Britain’s last aircraft carrier, ‘HMS Illustrious,’ has set sail to be scrapped in Turkey. The vessel, known as 'Lusty,' came into service in 1982 and was rushed into service to catch the lattermost stages of the Falklands War. She also served in the Gulf Wars and Sierra Leone conflict. It was one of three Invincible-class ships commissioned in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Read full article
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Disclaimer & comment rulesReplacements years away? Portsmouth is expecting the arrival of HMS Queen Elizabeth early in 2017!
Dec 09th, 2016 - 06:15 am - Link - Report abuse 0@gordo01
Dec 09th, 2016 - 05:33 pm - Link - Report abuse 0A new warship, particularly the vastly complicated and electronically controlled sort built today, takes several years of sea trials, changes and repairs to get everything to work properly, training of officers and crew to operate it, etc. -- before it is fit for service. Getting it in the water and able to move under its own power is only the beginning of this process.
One would think the fools in government would have had enough sense to have kept their only operational carrier in service until its replacement was ready to go -- evidently not. Th UK will have no armed forces fit for use unless government sees them as a higher priority than the thousands of stupid, unnecessary and wasteful things it squanders money on.
@ Bisley
Dec 09th, 2016 - 07:40 pm - Link - Report abuse 0What are all these things you believe the government wastes money on? Pensions? The NHS? Teachers? Prison guards? Border patrol vessels?
The truth is the government have been trying to save money nearly everywhere since 2010 and it shows. And still the National Debt increases every year with no end in sight.
Plus, there's no point keeping the aircraft carrier anyway; they already got rid of the only planes that could fly from it.
the government have been trying to save money nearly everywhere since 2010
Dec 09th, 2016 - 09:01 pm - Link - Report abuse 0first off, 6 years and apparently the government has spend 500 million more, so where was the saving,
Plus, what has happened to all that austerity money that was saved,
does anyone won know where it went or who got it,
s the government seems to have spent more that it saved, one would seriously ask,, was it worth it , ??
just an expensive thought.
@ Briton
Dec 10th, 2016 - 12:01 am - Link - Report abuse 0There has been inflation over the last 6 years, I believe if you take that into account the government is actually spending slightly less than in 2010. Also the population has grown over that time so more spending would usually be needed.
As for where the money has gone, it was never ours to begin with. The government has been borrowing money to spend; spending less means they borrowed less, which is a good thing.
And whether it was worth it I don't know. If you voted for this government, presumably it was what you wanted?
Well the experts don't agree,
Dec 10th, 2016 - 12:02 pm - Link - Report abuse 0And no I did not vote for this government,
and we are still missing millions.
@ Briton
Dec 10th, 2016 - 02:12 pm - Link - Report abuse 0What do the experts not agree with? And how are we missing millions?
Well the guardian did not agree with austerity
Dec 10th, 2016 - 08:20 pm - Link - Report abuse 0,The case for cuts was a lie. Why does Britain still believe it?
The austerity delusion
https://www.theguardian.com/business/ng-interactive/2015/apr/29/the-austerity-delusion
after six years of cutbacks where has all the money gone that was saved,
something don't sound right,
don't get me wrong, labour left a hell ever mess for the conservative to clean up,
but nothing seems to have improved,
@ Briton
Dec 11th, 2016 - 09:18 am - Link - Report abuse 0The problem with austerity is that it's bad for the economy. If you are spending more than you are earning, there are two solutions; you can spend less or try to earn more. But for a country, spending less often leads to earning less, which makes the problem worse. In this situation there aren't really any good answers.
As for the money that was saved, it's like if you were buying things on your credit card. If you spend less one month, you don't have any money left over. You just have a smaller credit card bill. So Britain has a smaller national debt today because of the money saved.
Now the government has abandoned austerity and started to spend more, so we will get the chance to see if that improves the economy.
We wait and see.
Dec 12th, 2016 - 07:52 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Commenting for this story is now closed.
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