The monarchy hasn’t done enough for years for any overseas territories. No surprise, Charles should have been in the US and talking about Jamaica before Starmer visited. He would have too, but all monarchs have been hamstrung by the foreign office for a long time. The English parliament does not care

Depending on the rules. He may yet win. Trump only needs to come not last too. He’s playing shithead with a Switch hand

https://onukdefence.co.uk/military-capability/are-uk-aircraft-carriers-vital-or-white-elephants/ - ain’t just my analysis!

Ways for floundering statesmen to get a ratings bump: go to war. Why does this always give a boost to incumbents?

Scholz and Macron both ready too? Le grand armée marches again! Germany with an election this year, and they are less keen on troops for obvious reasons. Macron will support, seen his ratings?

But none will go in whilst it is still hot. Meaning Putin doesn’t care, he’s likely to get Crimea and Donbas out of this, and be ready to re-arm for Moldova. Too little too late for this war from the European leaders, and it took fucking Trump to get them to not even agree anything yet!

The long game, get England back for 1812!

Aircraft carriers have been useful about once since 1945. The Falklands. A war fought in the middle of nowhere about a tiny island that nobody really needs. The last colonial battle. Every other conflict has been better served from ground bases. The gulf wars could easily have been served almost exclusively from Cyprus for instance.

So usefulness: not so much, mostly offensive

Costs: exorbitant. Massive issues with the most recent pair in the UK. And don’t buy Japanese (or anyone else’s) exceptionalism. These things are money pits in hardware, manpower, training, testing, supplying, fueling, maintenance, and repairs.

Modern day defence capabilities: almost fuck all. No anti missile defences, no anti AUV, anti-submarine is usually a heli on board. With glide bombs being de jure primary weapons currently and them having a range of approximately 70Km. Combined with the threat of hypersonic missiles. Usually housing vast quantities of marines too.

These things are massive white elephants, obvious targets, expensive to boot. Why the fuck would you convert a destroyer? (Even one as obviously not a destroyer)