The French navy is full of ships named after men who beat us. Don't rename HMS Agincourt
th
century visitor to London got annoyed after his cab drove him from Waterloo Station via Waterloo Bridge and Waterloo Square to the Waterloo Hotel: he gave the cabby a good thrashing.
Perhaps someone in Whitehall received a verbal thrashing from our French friends when they discovered that the latest
Astute
Class submarine was to be named HMS
Agincourt
, adding insult to the injury of the Aukus pact which so upset M Macron. Or could it be that the French didn't care what we called the submarine, and that the person in Whitehall was simply
The French are not so meek. After all, their navy's glorious traditions are based above all on its battles against perfidious Albion. At least six of its major warships today bear the names of men who fought against us, and sometimes fought dirty. The frigate
Surcouf
is named after Robert Surcouf, a highly successful slave trader (whoops!) and privateer who made a fortune attacking British merchantmen. The submarine
Duguay-Trouin
honours René Trouin, Sieur du Gué, another privateer and occasional slave trader who preyed successfully on English and Scottish merchantmen and captured several Royal Navy warships, for which he was ennobled and rose to be an admiral. The submarine
Suffren
honours Pierre André de Suffren de Saint Tropez, bailli de Suffren (the French navy, with its notably aristocratic tradition, has many heroes with splendid names). He fought the British to a standstill in the Indian Ocean. The frigate
La Fayette
is named after the famous Marie-Joseph Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de La Fayette, who helped the Americans rebel in 1776. The submarine
Tourville
commemorates Anne-Hilarion de Costentin, Comte de Tourville, who inflicted a serious defeat at Beachy Head in 1690, when he captured or sank seven ships. The destroyer
Forbin
recalls Claude, comte de Forbin-Gardanne, who sank or captured many British ships, and also helped Bonny Prince Charlie to invade in 1745. The frigate
Chevalier Paul
honours Jean-Paul de Saumeur, whose many exploits include sinking a British ship that had failed to salute the French flag (nearly all the crew drowned). Until it retired recently, the submarine
Casabianca
commemorated Luc-Julien-Joseph Casabianca,
a French Revolution politician and later naval officer under Napoleon, killed by Nelson's fleet at the Battle of the Nile when his ship blew up. His young son, who also died, was the hero of the poem that begins 'The boy stood on the burning deck …'
Given the pride shown by 'la Royale' in its glorious history of bashing the Brits and being bashed in return, I would be surprised if it had been upset by our calling a submarine
Agincourt
. After all, we already have
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Reuters
25 minutes ago
- Reuters
UK's Starmer to hold urgent talks over Gaza 'humanitarian catastrophe'
LONDON, July 24 (Reuters) - British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said he would hold an emergency call with France and Germany over the situation in Gaza, which he described as an "unspeakable and indefensible" humanitarian catastrophe. In a strongly worded statement late on Thursday, Starmer said he would discuss with partners "what we can do urgently to stop the killing and get people the food they desperately need," and called on Israel to allow aid into the Palestinian enclave. "The suffering and starvation unfolding in Gaza is unspeakable and indefensible. While the situation has been grave for some time, it has reached new depths and continues to worsen. We are witnessing a humanitarian catastrophe," Starmer said. "We all agree on the pressing need for Israel to change course and allow the aid that is desperately needed to enter Gaza without delay," he added, referring to France and Germany. Gaza's health authorities have said over 100 people have died from starvation, most of them in recent weeks. More than 100 organisations, including Mercy Corps, the Norwegian Refugee Council and Refugees International, have said mass starvation is spreading in Gaza even as tons of food and other supplies sit untouched just outside the enclave. Israel, which cut off all supplies to Gaza from the start of March and reopened the flow with new restrictions in May, says it is committed to allowing aid in but must control it to prevent it from being diverted by militants. Starmer said he supported U.S., Qatari and Egyptian efforts to secure a ceasefire in Gaza. "A ceasefire will put us on a path to the recognition of a Palestinian state and a two-state solution," he said.
The Guardian
28 minutes ago
- The Guardian
No fear or favours: how Corbyn and Sultana's party could blow up British politics
New political parties have a patchy record in British politics. Take Change UK, which launched amid much fanfare in the spring of 2019 and had disbanded by the end of the same year. So can Jeremy Corbyn and Zarah Sultana fare any better? In part it depends on the question you ask. The new and as-yet unnamed leftwing party formally announced by Corbyn and his fellow ex-Labour MP on Thursday, has one major advantage at its disposal: the former Labour leader's very strong public profile. According to a rolling YouGov poll of politicians' name recognition, Corbyn is known by 98% of voters, more than Keir Starmer or Nigel Farage. 'Everyone knows who Jeremy Corbyn is, everyone knows who he stands for. And with any new party, that is not even half the battle. It's three-quarters of the battle,' said Robert Ford, a professor of political science at Manchester University. 'A lot of people don't like what he stands for, but that doesn't matter, because he's not aiming for everyone.' That is the second likely advantage for the organisation, launched under the interim title of 'Your Party'. Unlike Change UK, a collection of centrist MPs who defected from Labour and the Conservatives, or indeed unlike Corbyn's task when he led Labour, there is no need to temper opinions to court the middle ground. Co-led by Corbyn and Sultana, the party is explicitly aiming itself at left-leaning voters who until now are likely to have backed Labour, the Greens or the collection of Gaza-focused independents who saw off Labour candidates in four constituencies in last year's election. 'With the best will in the world, not even Zarah Sultana, I suspect, is expecting Jeremy Corbyn to be the next prime minister,' Ford said. 'That's not the purpose of it. The purpose of it is to offer an outlet for those who think Labour have driven too far to the right. So he doesn't have the same problem that he and his advisers had a few years ago.' Polling before the party launched suggested it could gather as much as 10% of the vote nationally. However, new parties traditionally struggle to maintain momentum, and turning polls into votes relies on building an effective campaign machine, which is tricky to do from scratch. All this could make for a complex picture at a constituency level, with Ford noting that it could variously make electoral life harder or easier for Labour MPs, depending on the location and context. For example, even a 5% haul for a Corbyn-Sultana candidate could mean the difference between Labour win or a loss to the Conservatives or Reform UK. The new venture could also scupper the Greens in their hopes of taking seats from Labour in the 40 areas where they finished second in 2024, given its likely appeal to some Green voters. The Greens have dismissed the opening statement from the new party for making 'only a passing glance to the climate crisis', saying this left them stuck in the past, and it is possible that Corbyn's main electoral hunting ground will be voters sympathetic to the Gaza-focused independents. The only Labour response has been a brief and scathing party source quote about the electorate having 'twice given its verdict on a Jeremy Corbyn-led party', in the 2017 and 2019 elections. But the new party is different in its aims, and, politically, 2025 is not 2019. An ostensibly new party, Reform UK, is leading the polls, even if it is Nigel Farage's third incarnation of Ukip, which can trace its history back more than 30 years. And voter loyalties, which were once relatively fixed, are more fluid than ever. One thing, however, is constant: the identity of the co-protagonist. Corbyn has a name, but also political baggage, and a reputation for occasional prickliness and falling out with people. The launch of the new party has been slightly stumbling, with allies of Corbyn making plain their annoyance when Sultana announced herself as co-leader of a new group in June. It is also unusual to launch a new party without having agreed on a name. Can Corbyn and Sultana confound the historical odds? To an extent it doesn't entirely matter. In the currently fragmented multiparty world, even moderate success could have a disproportionate impact.
Telegraph
28 minutes ago
- Telegraph
Starmer: Palestinians have inalienable right to statehood
Sir Keir Starmer has said the Palestinian people have an 'inalienable right' to a state of their own. The Prime Minister made the comment on Thursday evening as he came under growing pressure from Labour MPs over the worsening humanitarian situation in Gaza. In a statement, Sir Keir also condemned the 'unspeakable and indefensible' suffering in the strip and called it a 'humanitarian catastrophe'. The Labour Government backs Palestinian statehood but has argued for months that it should be formally recognised at the right moment to further peace in the region. The statement falls short of a promise to declare Palestinian statehood – something the French are pushing to be done next month. Sir Keir said: 'We are clear that statehood is the inalienable right of the Palestinian people. A ceasefire will put us on a path to the recognition of a Palestinian state and a two-state solution which guarantees peace and security for Palestinians and Israelis.' Cabinet ministers have reportedly been pushing privately for Sir Keir to announce UK recognition while Sir Sadiq Khan, Labour's London mayor, publicly joined the calls this week. Pressure on Sir Keir is likely to intensify after Jeremy Corbyn and Zarah Sultana launched a new hard-left party to challenge Sir Keir. The pair have accused the Government of enabling genocide and are expected to link up with several independent pro-Gaza MPs. A UN conference on the issue, planned for June but delayed by the Israel-Iran war, is now due to take place next week. Critics of immediate recognition have said that it should not happen until Hamas is removed from any leadership role in Gaza and all Israeli hostages are released. Israel's government has characterised any recognition by the UK and France as a 'reward' for Hamas 's Oct 7 atrocities. The US had been leading efforts to broker a Gaza ceasefire in recent months but Steve Witkoff, Donald Trump's Middle East envoy, cut them off on Thursday. He said the US was bringing home its negotiators, saying Hamas 'clearly shows a lack of desire to reach a ceasefire'. Mr Witkoff added that the US would now 'consider alternative options to bring the hostages home', without clarifying what they would be.
