Britain’s submarines are at sea for too long—or not at all
No sunlight or fresh food for months
IN THE final days of August one of Britain’s four nuclear-armed Vanguard-class submarines—the government will not say which—limped back into the Scottish port of Faslane. Weary submariners, deprived of sunlight and fresh air for nearly six months, lay slumped against the conning tower. The hull was encrusted with marine growth. John Healey, Britain’s defence secretary, watching on, hailed the sailors’ “extraordinary sacrifices”. Yet such long patrols are also a sign of a crisis in Britain’s submarine force.
What’s next for Britain and the EU?
Brexit’s economic toll is now clear. But the path forward is murky
Britain and the EU find it easier to talk about guns than butter
But closer ties in foreign and security policy are still not easy to forge
Britain’s ban on arms sales to Israel mixes politics and legalism
The government has outlined grounds for concern but not a coherent rationale
A tardy, scathing report on the Grenfell Tower fire in London
Blaming lots of people slows things down
Why are Remainers so weak in post-Brexit Britain?
The European cause is hugely popular. Its proponents are strangely ineffective