Every penny not spent on defence is a penny that might be spent on the NHS. What else do you need?

Hi. I beg to disagree. Yes, those ships would have been formidable foes but I think the failure was not miliarial (even simply meaning poor resources) but political. HMGs - including Mrs Thatcher's first administration - signalled a disinterest in the Falklands. This was received by an eager Argentine junta, bend on the old conjuring act of hand-deceiving-eye. Capturing the Falklands would have been an excellent diversion for that regime. On another YT comments' section someone asked why the submarine in CSG21 was visible on the surface, near HMS QE; they thought it wrong for the Silent Service. But it was right to film that video because deterrent is the game there. But if today's HMG showed any reluctance to deploy (say) a CSG in response to a threat then all the fantastic aircraft carriers and cruise-missile subs in the World would not deter anyone. Cheers.

The Eagle was a far better carrier, more reliable and seaworthy.

I hear Labour are likely to be the people's choice in a few days - perhaps they'll turn it around?

@@nemo6686 on to what the slippery slope of doom

@@59patrickw Where's your patriotism - don't you know it's the Great British Slippery Slope of Doom?

@@nemo6686 the grate has gone back in the 2000 more to the shame as for British should it be English

I haven't lived in Britain since 1991. I take it mass immigration has ended it as a country? And anyone who says so gets jailed. Funny how Hitler and Napoleon failed but a few commissars controlling everything succeeded.

Yes sadly that about sums it 👍🥴

@@ingurlund9657 they conquered nothing but raised everything

Utter drivel.@@ingurlund9657

'Economies' to preserve welfare spending while attempting to rein-in government spending - perhaps false economies, given how events proceeded, but it was the Falklands War that gave Thatcher the political capital to finally begin to rid Britain of its 'Sick Man of Europe' status.

Ark Royal was decommissioned on the 14th of February while James Callaghan was Prime Minister. Margaret Thatcher became Prime Minister following the General Election of the 3rd of May 1979, nearly three months later.

Ark Royal was materially worn out by the time she was decommissioned, so much in fact that when main engines were rung off for the final time they weren't turned and cooled down, effectively rendering them scrap within 72 hours. When I served I knew a few guys who were ships company in the ME department for her last years they all said exactly the same thing about her machinery and material condition. Her sister Eagle was in far better condition when she paid off, the drawback for her was that she needed extensive modification to operate Phantoms, and that was her undoing. To put things into context, the new Queen Elizabeth class carriers took more than 23 years to devise, design, refine, build and eventually generate just 1 carrier strike group, Ark Royal served about 23 years and Eagle about 19, that doesn't take into account time for refits, modernisation and upgrades.