Hope for the Dockyard
Here’s what was making the news on April 28, 1982, as the build-up to the Falklands conflict continued.
Portsmouth civic and union leaders are furious at Defence Secretary John Nott’s refusal to give ground over his plans to run down the Dockyard.
Despite the evidence of the Dockyard’s magnificent efforts to get the Falklands task force to sea so quickly, Mr Nott remains intransigent - a lonely figure at the helm, steering for rocks which will wreck Britain’s surface fleet capacity and essential Dockyard support.
Conservative MPs fighting to save the ‘Yard claim to see a glimmer of hope in the guarded nature of Mr Nott’s words in the Commons yesterday. The Defence Secretary, confirming a freeze on redundancies at Portsmouth and Chatham in the immediate future, said: ‘Our general strategy on the future of the dockyards must remain unchanged.’
The Portsmouth North MP (Mr Peter Griffiths) said: ‘It would be premature to assume the whole programme of reductions in the Dockyard is to be reversed.
‘If we want to obtain a change in the attitude of the Defence Ministry it will be brought about only by continued pressure and persuasion. The News Keep the Fleet campaign must be maintained at full throttle.’
It is clearly going to take intensive pressure to persuade Mr Nott that the Falklands crisis and Britain’s maritime needs must result in a rethink of maritime policy.
The Defence Secretary admitted that he had learned three lessons from the emergency - the need to have combat stocks in store; sufficient fuel; and the ability to use civilian assets. He conceded that the Defence White Paper, although completed, would have to be amended in the light of lessons learned from the crisis.