Monday, November 06, 2006


About 3 weeks ago I sent a load of freedom of information requests to different government departments – including my local council. So far I have received 2 back.

Now when you make a freedom of information request they say you have to wait 20-30 days before the information gets to you. So far the response has been excellent. In the first week I got one from my local council telling me there had infact been planning permission granted for a shop to be converted into a mosque in a place called Southbank which is about a 15 minute drive for me. They have 3 years to build the mosque before the planning permission is revoked.

Today I got an email from the Ministry of Defence about my query but it is only from the navy department. The army or RAF isn’t as efficient as my original query was split into 3 by the Ministry of Defence.

My query was on the Falklands and the above is the response I got back.

I know we have an ice patrol boat and I know it isn’t going to stay near the Falklands all the time but I just don’t see a reason for it.

Click on the picture to read it properly.

As you will read we only have 1 ship in the area of the Falklands called HMS Dumbarton Castle which is only a patrol vessel. The other ships are either en route or about to be sent off to the Falklands.

With Argentina still unhappy about the Falklands being retaken is it wise just to leave 1 vessel to patrol the Falklands especially if it is just a patrol vessel?

According to the Royal Navy’s own website HMS Dumbarton Castle is basically designed to carry out fishery protection and offshore patrols. The ship also only has a maximum of 52 crew. What exactly is that going to do if a hostile force attacked the Falklands?

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Although the RN don't say so, there is almost certainly at least one sub in the area too.

What is worse, though, is that the RN is now so weak senior officers have said that it is no longer certain it can protect British waters let alone project power to far corners of the earth.

Worse still - with the demise of the Sea Harriers, the RN has no proper air defence capability. If Argentina wanted to retake the Falklands - now would be a good time.

It seems ludicrous to me that, when this government has commited our forces to more and more work, they provide them with less and less cash and capability.

Anonymous said...

there was only a tiny contingent there back before the "war"
It seems that politicians are always keen to run the Forces down, just when you need them most.
Disgrace about the Sea Harriers. A fine plane and quite upgradeable.