Monday, June 27, 2005

Next thing we’ll be apologising for it

BBC News reports:

Trafalgar mock-up 'pretty stupid'

Lord Nelson's closest living relative has fired a shot across the bows of the Trafalgar 200 celebrations, labelling some of them as "pretty stupid".

Anna Tribe, 75 and the great, great, great granddaughter of the admiral, criticised a mock-up of the 1805 sea battle as "politically correct".

Tuesday's re-enactment in the Solent will pit reds against blues, not English against French and Spanish.

The organisers said they were not attempting to re-create Trafalgar.

Second Sea Lord, Vice Admiral Sir James Burnell-Nugent, said the event was "a celebration of a battle at sea at the time of Nelson - not an exact mock-up of the British and French at Trafalgar".

A fleet of 17 ships from five nations will take part in the re-enactment, off Southsea, Hampshire, after the international fleet review.

But Mrs Tribe, from Monmouthshire, said: "The idea of the blue team fighting the red team is pretty stupid.

"I am sure the French and Spanish are adult enough to appreciate we did win that battle."

...Don't bet your house on it.

3 comments:

Brit said...

Hmm...Is Totnes Lib Dem by any chance?

Brit said...

Ah yes: http://www.totnes.libdems.org.uk/news/123.html

martpol said...

My favourite bit is the Queen's Inspection of Her Ships, or whatever they call it. I've yet to read up on the technical details, but from what I can gather she zips around (on a speedboat?!) from ship to ship, inspecting each one and saying it's fine. Or at least, I presume she says it's fine, unless she has an engineering degree or plans to take an oily rag and a toolkit down below decks.

Sympathies to Mrs Tribe, of course; interestingly, she lives in Monmouthshire, a part of Wales which likes to pretend it's English.