As the Russian aircraft carrier Admiral Kuznetsov finally nears the eastern Mediterranean, with a trail of ugly black smoke belching from its funnels, it’s a fitting moment to acknowledge some credit where it’s due.
For the waves created by President Putin’s flagship as it passed our shores – before steaming into further controversy in Spain – more than endorse the Cameron government’s brave decision to press on with Britain’s new £3 billion aircraft carrier, the HMS Queen Elizabeth, in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis.
For it was the Cameron government’s decision – in that otherwise largely unloved strategic defence review (the one that saw the abrupt consignment of the HMS Ark Royal to the scrapyard and the sale of Harrier) – to commit to the completion of the Queen Elizabeth as well as her sister ship, the Prince of Wales back in 2010.
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