NAVY NEWS, OCTOBER 2010
29
Surveying the defence news
AM I alone in being depressed that the Secretary of State for Defence chose to make his announcement in front of an audience at the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors? I have nothing against Chartered
Surveyors but perception is important. Was it so very difficult for the
Government to arrange for this important announcement to be made in front of an audience of servicemen and women at a naval or military establishment? Was the Government so scared of the undoubted searching and blunt questioning they would have received from an informed service audience? We will never know. Following the General Election I thought we had seen the last of inept government and policy
announced on the fly, my perception is that I was wrong. – Ian Stirton Smith, Gosport
This speech was given by the Secretary of State for Defence, Dr Liam Fox, on August 13. He outlined his approach to the Strategic Defence and Security Review and introduced the new Defence Reform Unit.
The audience included
industry and civil servants as well as servicemen and women and his outer offi ce told us this venue was judged to be the most appropriate.
A full text can be found on the MOD website at
www.mod.uk. Navy News will cover news about the Strategic Defence and Security Review in our fi rst available edition after it’s announced, probably in the December issue – Man Ed
Farewell to the sea songs?
THE UN’s Albert Embankment- based International Maritime Organisation declared 2010 the Year of the Seafarer and indeed it is World Maritime Day on September 23. What a pity that Sir Henry Wood’s arrangement,
and traditional Fantasia on British Sea Songs, so much enjoyed by Prommers
since 1905, was not
played at this year’s Last Night of the Proms.
Sea-blind an island nation?
We’re deaf to the sounds of the sea too!
– Lt Cdr Lester May, Camden Town, London.
Yes indeed – I always got my handkerchief out for poor Tom Bowling, but I think he’s fi nally gone aloft.
And I still haven’t got over the loss of Radio 4’s early morning UK Theme with Rule Britannia, which the BBC dropped in 2006 – Man Ed
Myth’tery ship
I LEFT the Royal Navy after 34 years in 1995 and have had this question on the back burner for some considerable time. Now in semi-
retirement in Santa Fe, New Mexico, I have found the time to ask it, after doing some research with the aid of a Greek priest I know here.
My question is: Why was one of the many Leander-class frigates, Cleopatra, named after a real person when all the others were mythical? I gave my friend a list of all the Leanders and he confirmed that, bar Cleopatra, they are all named after Greek or Roman mythology characters. Can any readers answer this question? – Roy Banton, ex-WOGI, Santa Fe
● (left) HMS Cleopatra in October 1984
the jolly
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