Saturday
17May2008
A tale of one ship
Saturday, May 17, 2008 at 09:51PM
HMS Kellington is was a small versatile minesweeper, built in Sunderland by Austin Pickersgill in 1954 with a double mahogany hull because of her anti-mine nature. The Kellington was a typical Royal Navy workhorse, the type of ship which could go anywhere and do many tasks. She steamed many thousands of miles, performed in escort, NATO and Fishery Protection duties, gave a home to British sailors and formed part of the true old Navy. The Fleet, the men, the ships which I used to see in harbours all around the British Isles, the very ethos of a force which had but one role, Service! Service to the Nation, service to the Crown, service to humanity.
And how is the Navy, once the very lifeline which helped protect Britons during the Second world war, rewarded by this pack of gutless, communist, ideologue clowns who masquerade under the name of the Labour Government. It is emasculated! It’s major vessels mothballed, it’s future contracts for more ships cancelled, it’s very funds stripped away by a series of razor attacks by the likes of Des (two jobs) Browne, our present Defence Secretary. Another in a long line of snivelling Scots politicians doing the dirty work planned by their Great Leader Blair; he has overseen the slow deprivation of money and plans from the Senior Service, and of course all this has been done in the name of you, the taxpayer! Want higher welfare benefits? Want easier access to healthcare, and of course keep the unions quiet? Want to accept untold thousands of refugees who all want looking after? You can have all of this, our Labour masters state, but at a price. We cannot stretch the cash we have, so we have to cut something! So we can’t touch welfare of the NHS! We can’t kick the bloody bogus asylum seekers out, because they’ve now got ‘human rights’, so we have to slash defence spending! After all, no one is attacking British ships, this is the twenty-first century, and we need only the soldiers to fight in Afghanistan. The RAF is too expensive, as we’ve bought the wrong aircraft and helicopters, so the Navy has to take the brunt of the savings!
And this, dear reader, is what you want! It must be; because you voted this shiftless bunch of thieves and rogues in three times in a row!
The Kellington? Ah well, she lies slightly askew against a dockside in Stockton-on-Tees. Vandalised, dirty, abandoned, she sits marooned and locked away from the sea by three low bridges and a barrage. She can’t move, and has been declared a hazard to safety. Fair enough, she is fifty-three years old, a venerable age for any ship, but to lie rotting against a riverside dock in a place where she cannot move! It beggars belief that a fine small ship is treated this way!
And how is the Navy, once the very lifeline which helped protect Britons during the Second world war, rewarded by this pack of gutless, communist, ideologue clowns who masquerade under the name of the Labour Government. It is emasculated! It’s major vessels mothballed, it’s future contracts for more ships cancelled, it’s very funds stripped away by a series of razor attacks by the likes of Des (two jobs) Browne, our present Defence Secretary. Another in a long line of snivelling Scots politicians doing the dirty work planned by their Great Leader Blair; he has overseen the slow deprivation of money and plans from the Senior Service, and of course all this has been done in the name of you, the taxpayer! Want higher welfare benefits? Want easier access to healthcare, and of course keep the unions quiet? Want to accept untold thousands of refugees who all want looking after? You can have all of this, our Labour masters state, but at a price. We cannot stretch the cash we have, so we have to cut something! So we can’t touch welfare of the NHS! We can’t kick the bloody bogus asylum seekers out, because they’ve now got ‘human rights’, so we have to slash defence spending! After all, no one is attacking British ships, this is the twenty-first century, and we need only the soldiers to fight in Afghanistan. The RAF is too expensive, as we’ve bought the wrong aircraft and helicopters, so the Navy has to take the brunt of the savings!
And this, dear reader, is what you want! It must be; because you voted this shiftless bunch of thieves and rogues in three times in a row!
The Kellington? Ah well, she lies slightly askew against a dockside in Stockton-on-Tees. Vandalised, dirty, abandoned, she sits marooned and locked away from the sea by three low bridges and a barrage. She can’t move, and has been declared a hazard to safety. Fair enough, she is fifty-three years old, a venerable age for any ship, but to lie rotting against a riverside dock in a place where she cannot move! It beggars belief that a fine small ship is treated this way!
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Reader Comments (2)
Telling post Mike - the Nulabour marxists hate the military and will delight in the poignant tale you relate.
David,
If Nulabour "hate the military" how do you explain this from the article?
Why would military-haters plan two new giant carriers?