Navy to cut its fleet by half

By Thomas Harding, Defence Correspondent
Last Updated: 3:03am GMT 05/01/2007

Royal Navy commanders were in uproar yesterday after it was revealed that almost half of the Fleet's 44 warships are to be mothballed as part of a Ministry of Defence cost-cutting measure.

HMS Invincible, may never go to sea again

Senior officers have said the plans will turn Britain's once-proud Navy into nothing more than a coastal defence force.

The Government has admitted that 13 unnamed warships are in a state of reduced readiness, putting them around 18 months away from active service. Today The Daily Telegraph can name a further six destroyers and frigates that are being proposed for cuts.

A need to cut the defence budget by £250 million this year to meet spending requirements has forced ministers to look at drastic measures.

MoD sources have admitted it is possible that the Royal Navy will discontinue one of its major commitments around the world at a time when Sir Jonathon Band, the First Sea Lord, has said more ships are needed to protect the high seas against terrorism and piracy.

News of further cuts to what was once the world's most formidable fleet comes as critics say failings across the Services are becoming increasingly apparent.

More details are emerging of the near-squalor that soldiers are forced to tolerate in barracks when they return from six months of dangerous overseas operations.

Questions have also been raised about the poor pay for troops and equipment failures which continue to dog operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The six warships to be mothballed are the Type 22 frigates Cumberland, Chatham, Cornwall and Campbeltown and two Type 42 destroyers Southampton and Exeter.

It is likely that they will eventually be sold or scrapped. There are also fears in the Admiralty that two new aircraft carriers, promised in 1998, might never be built.

Meanwhile the French navy, which will be far superior to the Royal Navy after the cuts, will announce before the April presidential elections that a new carrier will be built.

Two of eight advanced air defence Type 45 destroyers on the Navy's order books will not be bought, defence sources said. The order is already six months behind schedule and £157 million over budget.

A senior officer, currently serving with the Fleet in Portsmouth, said: "What this means is that we are now no better than a coastal defence force or a fleet of dug-out canoes. The Dutch now have a better navy than us."

Defence sources said it would be unlikely that the Navy could now launch an armada of the kind that retook the Falkland Islands in 1982.

Steve Bush, editor of the monthly magazine Warship World, said the MoD was bankrupt following the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

"After 10 years of Labour government, the Royal Navy is on its knees without immediate and proper funding. I cannot see how it can recover —especially if Mr Brown becomes the next prime minister," he said.

There are already reports that ships on operations are ignoring faults to weapons systems in order to save money but will spend cash if it is a health and safety issue.

The Navy is expected to lose one of its three carriers, Invincible, which has been laid up in Portsmouth. One of the three major ports is also under threat of closure. It is believed that the historic Navy headquarters of Portsmouth is most vulnerable.

Two unnamed mine counter-measure vessels and two Royal Fleet Auxiliary tankers, Brambleleaf and Oakleaf, are also under threat.

Adam Ingram, the defence minister, admitted in a Parliamentary answer last month that 13 ships were at sea with 18 in port at 48 hours notice to deploy. The decision to tie up another six frigates will mean the Navy has just 25 warships left. This would mean giving up a major commitment such as the anti-drugs and hurricane support role in the Caribbean.

To protect Britain from attack today, the country has the frigates Monmouth and Montrose available with the carrier Ark Royal about to re-enter service after a lengthy refit.

The MoD said yesterday that it had no plans to cut the destroyer and frigate fleet but it "routinely reviewed" defence capabilities "to ensure resources are directed where our front line Armed Forces need them most".

A spokesman said: "We are some way from any decisions and just because a proposal is looked at does not mean that it will be implemented"

A final decision on the cuts is expected next month.


_________________
Merdeka, Merdeka, Merdeka,
from the HD Committee and its decision.

London Daily Telegraph.


£7m cost of telling staff how to keep desks tidy

By Paul Stokes
Last Updated: 3:03am GMT 05/01/2007

Civil servants are being trained how to keep their desks tidy as part of a £7 million Government project described by one union as "madness".

Staff at one HM Revenue and Customs complex have had strips of black tape fixed to their desks to mark where items should be placed.

The pilot study at the offices at Longbenton, Newcastle upon Tyne, is designed to improve efficiency by clearing clutter and keep computer keyboards, telephones and stationery in their optimum positions.

It is included in a programme entitled Lean, introduced by consultants Unipart to improve the performance of public sector workers more used to dealing with red tape.

HMRC would not disclose how much Unipart was being paid for its service but the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) yesterday claimed that the dictum to desk-users was part of a £7.4 million national project.

One Longbenton worker said: "Telling people where they should place their telephone is demeaning and demoralising.

"It's absurd that all this public money is being spent on this when staff are quite capable of deciding for themselves how their desks should be organised."

The union has had reports of staff in one office being asked if a banana was "active or inactive", meaning it had to be cleared from a desk unless it was going to be eaten immediately.

Kevin McHugh, the PCS branch secretary, said some staff at Longbenton share the same desk, and have to rearrange their workspace, regardless of the tape.

He said. "This office has been open for 60 years and people have managed to find their pens and staplers without consultants helping them in that time.

"They are trying to turn people into robots but the whole thing falls down because in certain areas we have hot-desking where different shifts come in and use the same desks.

"If the person coming in after you has slightly shorter arms, then the markers will be in the wrong place.

"Marking the desk tends to get members upset sometimes when they've got personal photographs on their desks and they have to move them around."

A HMRC spokesman explained it was "only right" that staff sharing desk space be given advice and support on how to make the most efficient use of the space.

She said: "It will also help to make sure everyone has what they need to do their job effectively and in turn support working relationships. Staff can still move the things on their desk to positions that suit them best.

"Lean is all about how we can work more efficiently to deliver an even better service to our customers."


(Can I ask, in terms of the MoD and the FCO, what service?)


_________________
Merdeka, Merdeka, Merdeka,
from the HD Committee and its decision.

er... what better service is this then.

A friend of mine who used to work at The British Telecom Research Centre in Martlesham Heath, who shall remain nameless, told me when they rebranded British Telecom's new image, it cost mega millions, but the company product was still the same old crap.

Does nobody ever learn...

Yours Aye

Arthur