By Jason Moore
THE Royal Navy is having a very hard time of late and is doing itself few favours. Just a few days after sweeping defence cuts which were meant to leave Britain ill-equipped to defend itself and a state of the art Royal Navy submarine runs aground close to its home port.
Whoops you could say, or just what is going on? The Royal Navy once ruled the waves now it appears to be stuck on a sandbank with a declining amount of equipment but hit by a series of freak accidents.
The hard-pressed British tax-payer is probably not too impressed that a submarine which cost in excess of one billion can run aground because it allegedly had out of date charts. Unfortunately, the number of freak accidents dogging the navy continues to grow. Earlier this year one of their brand new destroyers was involved in a docking accident, a submarine hit the bottom of the Suez Canal an ice breaker nearly sank in the South Atlantic and the list goes on. The British public obviously wants re-assurance that money which is being spent on the armed services is being well spent. Accidents, like the grounding last weekend, should simply not happen. It has made the Royal Navy a laughing stock and at a time when it faces major cutbacks, this is not very good news.