Bill for HMS Vanity Gin Palace swells by £50m in two months
- Reference: 1627581845
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2021/07/29/inflation_starts_to_bite_price/
- Source link:
At the end of May, Prime Minister Boris Johnson outlined details for a new [1]oceangoing gin palace to schmooze VIPs, negotiate trade deals, and fly the flag for UK Plc.
The price tag for this luxury yacht was set around £150m-£200m.
[2]
But speaking yesterday, UK Defence Secretary Ben Wallace was keen to set the record straight.
[3]
[4]
"There has been a lot of reporting around this ship," he said. "Not all of it accurate. So let me set out our basic aims.
"Subject to working through bids, competition and technology, I aim to commission the ship for between £200 and £250 million on a firm price."
[5]UK spends £36m on 18 little 'bullet-proof' boats to protect Royal Navy assets
[6]Royal Yacht Britannia's successor to cost about 1 North of England NHS IT consultancy framework
[7]Britannia should rule the (cyber) waves, minister tells Singapore event in bid to drum up Commonwealth support
[8]What happens when a Royal Navy warship sees a NATO task force headed straight for it? A crash course in Morse
Compared to the estimates being tossed around a couple of months ago, the bill is already heading in the wrong direction – for taxpayers at least.
The final decision on the design should be made by the end of this year with construction starting in 2022 and the vessel finally slipping her moorings by 2025 at the latest.
[9]
The nautical scheme has come in for plenty of criticism – not least on how the UK is going to pay for it.
By The Register 's rudimentary reckoning, the cost is now roughly equivalent [10]to around two days' worth of pure profit at Microsoft; 12 tickets [11]for a ride on Jeff Bezos' rocket ship; or the total amount set aside by Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rishi Sunak, in April last year to create a [12]£250m "Future fund" to help high tech businesses. ®
Get our [13]Tech Resources
[1] https://www.theregister.com/2021/06/01/uk_new_flagship/
[2] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/bootnotes&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2YQMlFDmrCAp64oWaTBZPkwAAAAY&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/bootnotes&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44YQMlFDmrCAp64oWaTBZPkwAAAAY&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/bootnotes&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33YQMlFDmrCAp64oWaTBZPkwAAAAY&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[5] https://www.theregister.com/2021/06/16/royal_navy_police_boats/
[6] https://www.theregister.com/2021/06/01/uk_new_flagship/
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2020/10/12/uk_commonwealth_cyber_exports_speech/
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2019/01/02/hms_enterprise_embed_life_at_sea/
[9] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/bootnotes&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44YQMlFDmrCAp64oWaTBZPkwAAAAY&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2021/07/27/microsoft_earnings_2021/
[11] https://www.theregister.com/2021/07/16/blue_origins_flight/
[12] https://www.theregister.com/2020/04/20/uk_government_unveils_future_fund_for_startups/
[13] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
hold on
You're expecting this white elephant to even get as far as being launched before the whole thing is scrapped or sold off to someone competent enough to actual finish and use this thing? I do admire your optimism...
Pretty sure I know who will pay...
Sorry to all you in the UK. You'll be chipping in your fair share, willing or not.
Just another BoJo Vanity project...
The thing about our esteemed govt, including BoJo and his lackeys, is that they have an unerring habit of coming up with vanity projects in the hope of winning votes.
And no doubt, this little scheme, projected to be built in the UK, will no doubt be awarded to a shipbuilding area where there are lots of floating voters and they will be grateful to have jobs thanks to this scheme...and no doubt will vote for BoJo at the next election, due around 2024, by coincidence (as by then the build will be well underway).
One assumes that this project will not be put out for tender to a South Korean or even Chinese company, who could no doubt build it at a higher specification and for half the price - as of course that won't win them any votes.
Boaty McBoatface
The Royal Research Ship 'Sir David Attenborough', aka 'Boaty McBoatface' only cost £200 million.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RRS_Sir_David_Attenborough
And it has a helipad, diving hatch and a remote controlled submarine.
So my question is, with all the arctic gear, and high tech research equipment, and comms gear for navigating in uncharted and dangerous waters, why would a new Royal yacht have to cost more? (OK so inflation is one answer.)
I doubt that Her Britannic Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II, will personally get much use out of it. It is more for Charles, and William. WTF is it going to be used for? Boris has an unfortunate history of supporting 'big ticket'/'vanity' projects that fail - the London Garden Bridge, suggested by Joanna Lumley was strongly supported by Boris - and the cable car across the Thames by Greenwich has days when literally nobody uses it (and that was before any Covid-19 lockdowns). Boris's repainted royal jet has seen little military use after the paint job and has had very little use by him too*.
Sadly I cannot help feeling that the money for a new Royal Yacht could be far better spend elsewhere (and not just on my pension fund, although all contributions are welcome).
* https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2020/jun/17/paint-job-on-boris-johnson-plane-will-cost-taxpayer-900000-pounds
And he's got another one:
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/government-plane-union-flag-paint-livery-b1820418.html
Even Lewis Hamilton manages with just the one private jet.
Re: Boaty McBoatface
I am sure the RRS 'Sir David Attenborough' does not have wallpaper costing £700 a roll nor furniture designed by Boris and Carrie's favourite designer.
Scrap value
The cruise industry has been scrapping quite a few ships due to lack of demand - why doesn't the government pickup one for scrap value and spend £50 million doing it up - that will still be less than the write off cost of Boris' garden bridge folly
[1]https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-47228698
...£53million
[1] https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-47228698
All aboard the Skylark.
I'm sure it will progressively rise over the next few years. Lots of pockets to fill. It's going to be a large one. Seagoing craft are now measured in migrants, and this one is going to be at least 7000 migrants stowage. Technically it will be a carrier, as the drones will need somewhere to take off for the displays, to wow the natives in far flung parts. Not that it will be allowed to dock anywhere (zeta variant).
I hope the BoJo bridge between Northern Ireland and [Independent-to-be] Scotland will be high enough to allow it to sail under.
Do you think we should ask Prince Andrew to be in charge of the 'entertainment' for all those celebs? Nice to maintain a royal link from the Britannia to the Carrie, and he seems to be at a loose end.
Not sure about the Captain. Patrick Stewart (impressive CV, own crew) or Captain Birdseye (the original, properly bearded one)?
Although I like the idea of a Royal Yacht, I'm not sure about having riff raff from the House of Commons infesting it. Perhaps the Tories could stage a leadership coup before Glorious Leader signs any contracts. One wave of his magic pen and the Bank of England are down another hundred million.
I assume Dido, our Queen, will be in overall charge of it.
a new oceangoing gin palace
I presume this is part of the much trumpeted "levelling up" agenda. So, can't wait until they give me my multimillion pound yacht too.
What's that? We're not going to be levelled up THAT much?
What a rotten swizz!
So fully expect this ship in a bottle
To have its costs well north of £500 million, do a couple of tours then get flogged for less than £100 million because of some catastrophic engineering oversight... Or it crashes into a sandbank.