Phil 🌊⚓️

How does ‘boycotting the RNLI’ work exactly? If you’re in a boat at sea in need of rescue and they turn up to help, do you just shout ‘nah mate we’re fine’ and then sink?

@RailTruthUK @raf_andrew @KirkBevins180 @CrossCountryUK Thank you for the reply, I was curious. I dread XC when I have to use them over GWR, and wondered what the issue was.

@matelotphil @raf_andrew @KirkBevins180 @CrossCountryUK I don’t believe the nationalisation of XC will fix the capacity issues. The DfT has the power right now to give them the remaining ex-Avanti Voyagers which are currently off-lease and in storage (XC have asked for them but are still waiting for a response from the Government)

I feel sorry for those that use trains regularly in the UK..thankfully I usually drive and also I'm not going all the way to Edinburgh from Birmingham. This is the @CrossCountryUK 1503 from BNS. Wedged in all the way down the corridor of every coach too!

@RailTruthUK @raf_andrew @KirkBevins180 @CrossCountryUK Do you think renationalising the railways will fix this? Or as this is the governments fault in the first place there won’t be any improvement?

@raf_andrew @KirkBevins180 @CrossCountryUK Hi, the number of trains available to XC (and the set number of carriages those trains have) is a decision made by the DfT. It’s down to the Government to provide them with more rolling stock to use

@jakeshieldsajj 😂😂😂😂 so many parody accounts popping up these days.

If Trump is able to open the Strait of Hormuz he will be the greatest president in American history No president before him even attempted to negotiate to open it You are playing chess while the president is playing 5D chess MAGA for life

@dontforgetchaos The scary thing is, if he vacates the presidency what comes next is just as unhinged.

I’m seeing this a lot in the last 30 minutes.

@its_Lexieroy Not much in the way of truth in the drunken rant tbh.

🚨 HOLY CRAP! SecWar Pete Hegseth just dropped a truth nuke on NATO “You don't have much of an ALLIANCE if you have countries that are not willing to STAND with you when you need them!” NATO is officially on notice. President Trump never forgets.

@GuntherEagleman Thick as a whale omelette this one.

I don’t want my taxpayer money going to NATO! It’s useless. Spain, England, France and Italy sold us out. Time to leave! Not another penny.

@cochranereturns @the_mantress @DrChrisParry 18 months training pipeline for new joiners is common. I’d be concerned if it went over 24 months before setting foot on a warship as ships company.

@the_mantress @DrChrisParry Weapons engineer.

Unacceptable when we are trying to get people to go to sea. Who is currently hiding this country’s heart of oak?

@thinkdefence When I worked in CNPERS reducing to one QEC would’ve solved all my workforce issues across all other ships. We’d still have a LPD for example. I’m not sure if this was the same across all trades.

Naval folks, would putting HMS Queen Elizabeth into some kind of lower readiness, as a warm spare for HMS Prince of Wales, help matters. So the RN scales an aircraft carrier like France, but unlike France, has a spare?

They never learn. Not the RN this time but retiring equipment before replacements are ready is a bit dim.

@FoxNews Not rich coming from a cowardly draft dodger

"We will REMEMBER!" President Trump puts the whole world on notice over those who acted -- and those who didn't -- in Iran and calls countries “COWARDS” for refusing to help open the Strait of Hormuz.

@AvonandsomerRob We have 2 EV’s in our household. Would only go back to petrol if the government make it to expensive to run. Our MG say up to 280 miles and does 250. The Peugeot say 186 and dos around 130-140.

One of the things that puts me off getting an EV is that most vehicles seem to achieve much less than their claimed range in road tests. I've heard owners struggling to get 200 miles from a car with a published range of 300. Do EV owners find the same drawback in practice?

@johnkonrad 2025 after repairs completed 8 month global deployment. What’s your point?

May 2020: First water leak incident October 2020: Second water leak, this time in an engine room, flooding to approximately three feet depth Late 2020: Forced into drydock for eight months due to an electrical problem August 27, 2022: Departed Portsmouth for US deployment including exercises with USN/USMC and Atlantic Future Forum in New York August 29, 2022: Starboard propeller shaft coupling failed off the Isle of Wight. Significant damage to shaft, propeller, and superficial rudder damage confirmed. US deployment cancelled entirely. October 2022: Limped to Rosyth drydock in Scotland for repairs February 2023: Port shaft found to have similar alignment defects, meaning both shafts were compromised from construction May 2023: MoD investigation confirmed root cause was shaft misaligned from build and incorrect installation of key components. Builders at Rosyth reportedly knew about the misalignment but deemed it within tolerance. Repair cost: ~£25 million. Early 2024: Failed to depart for NATO Exercise Steadfast Defender, where she was standing in for HMS Queen Elizabeth, which was also sidelined by her own propeller shaft issue. Both carriers unable to deploy simultaneously.

@warmatters He’s my local MP. Completely out of his depth as a Minister. All he ever did in Plymouth was campaign and knock on doors. Now he has a grown up job he’s floundering.

@BenObeseJecty Drop ‘The’ 😬

“The UK is preparing an aircraft carrier for possible deployment to the Middle East” This is pure posturing by Keir Starmer. Other than saving political face what is the benefit of deploying the HMS Prince of Wales Carrier Strike Group? And where would we deploy it to? I’ve repeatedly warned of the overstretch our armed forces face as this Government overcommits them, just as the previous Labour Government did. HMS Prince of Wales is supposed to be deploying to the High North on Operation Firecrest later this year, and was cited as the reason HMS Duncan couldn’t be the T45 deployed to Cyprus. Reducing its notice-to-move from 10 days to 5 sounds good but why would we deploy it, given the resources required to move it to the Arabian Gulf - a near whole force effort for the RAF and Royal Navy? Not to mention the risk of losing it. Last week we weren’t even prepared to strike Hezbollah. We could just move two squadrons of F-35B to RAF Akrotiri. That’s why it’s there. But that doesn’t have the same “strong leader” optics. We have just enough escort ships but no Astute class submarine; HMS Anson is undergoing AUKUS maintenance in Australia. HMS Dragon is still in Portsmouth, preparing to head to the Eastern Mediterranean and HMS Dauntless is in FTSP. If we were to deploy, how would we cover Operation Firecrest and how would we fulfil our NATO Standing Maritime Group One flagship commitment? Additionally, what effect will this have on the ship’s company(s) who only returned from an 8-month deployment late last year. Meanwhile the USS George H.W. Bush Carrier Strike Group yesterday completed COMPTUEX and is about to be tasked to the Eastern Mediterranean as the US’s third CSG in the region, replacing the USS Gerald Ford which is now in the Red Sea. The Defence Secretary will need to explain what the intention is here, and what deconfliction has taken place with our allies already in the Eastern Mediterranean.

Marco Rubio on Tuesday: "Iran is run by lunatics, religious fanatic lunatics." The White House Thursday:

@LiamFox We’ve never recovered from the 2010 SDR so I’d sit this one out if I were you.

Don't blame Britain's armed forces for our current international humiliation. We could have easily pre-positioned forces to defend our interests in Cyprus and Bahrain given that the writing has been on the wall for months that Iran's intransigence could result in US and Israeli military action.   We have left our allies bewildered and angry, our citizens and interests unprotected, and our international reputation in tatters because Keir Starmer, our "national embarrassment " did not want to send any "signals" to his Parliamentary left-wing and sections of his voter base that Britain might support US or Israeli action.    Cowering behind legal opinion and lacking any shred of leadership when we needed some political backbone, we have the most invertebrate government conceivable. Don't blame our proud and capable military who share our embarrassment, blame the shameful and useless Labour government which, nominally, governs our country.

@SkyNews Fuck me, he can’t even tell the truth about that 🤣

A U.S. submarine sunk an Iranian warship in international waters, says U.S. defence secretary Pete Hegseth. He says it's the "first sinking of an enemy ship by a torpedo since the Second World War". Iran latest 🔗 trib.al/bjKoYrS 📺 Sky 501

@pinstripedline No it’s not. It’s a very public admission that we don’t have the surface fleet to project global presence 24/7/365 anymore. Sad times.

The rapid drawdown of the decades UK long presence in the Gulf is a tangible sign of a far smaller and more narrowly focused Royal Navy than previously planned. This is reality of pivot to NATO - A return to Cold War operations in place of global presence.

Fact of the Day: General Major Bonespurs meets members of the Household Cavalry who explain what a Front Line looks like to him as part of Operation Tangerine Micro-Mushroom and the 457 reasons why he needs to apologise Photographed from a Canberra