Pillaging England’s noble shipbuilding heritage

I COME from a Hull family, whose maritime service and history is second to none to this very day. They have bravely and selflessly served on the Russian and Atlantic Convoys, landed Marines on Omaha Beach on D-Day in impossible weather and under fatal fire, recovered the aviator Amy Johnson from the Thames Estuary, only to be forced to return her back into the water, the Suez crises, being fired upon in the Icelandic Cod Wars, single-handedly saved a North Sea oil rig with all hands in one of the worst storms on record, saved all hands from a blazing trawler, the Falklands War and much more.

All captains, trawler skippers, proud servicemen and trawler men. My late brother, Captain PM Robson, was with the Cunard Line for many years, and was First Officer on the QE2. I only once ever witnessed him in an apoplectic rage, and that was when this flagship of the fleet was sent to Germany to be refitted.

He was unwavering on the point that the English shipyards, fitters and craftsmen were the finest in the world. Yes, they would have been more expensive, but as with everything else, you get what you pay for.

When the QE2 came back, his disgust and fury and downright despair at the appalling caricature of what this great ship once was, never left him.

An illustrious beauty was now just a former sad shadow of herself. Which brings me to the point of this letter.

This Government, and the Opposition, in their continuing rape and pillage of England 
and its noble history, have 
taken away from us the last of our precious shipbuilding heritage and handed over a lucrative contract to the shipyards on the Clyde, in Scotland, who cannot hold a candle to our yards here in England.

David Cameron has on record clearly stated for all to hear and read: “I will keep Scotland in the UK at any price.”

I think that says it all really.