Jawad Iqbal
Friday June 19 2020, 12.01am, The Times
The sheer pettiness involved in what sometimes passes for political controversy never ceases to amaze. The latest example is the synthetic outrage over the decision to spend £900,000 updating the military aircraft used by Boris Johnson to travel overseas on official business.
The grey RAF
Voyager, also used by members of the royal family, is
being repainted in a Union Jack design of red, white and blue. Critics have been quick to brand it a vanity project and a waste of public funds. Sir Ed Davey, the acting Liberal Democrat leader, even compared it with the cost of drugs used to treat Covid-19 patients, writing on Twitter: “The drug dexamethasone, that can potentially save the lives of people with coronavirus, costs £5 per patient. Boris Johnson could have bought 180,000 doses of that but instead he’s painting a flag on a plane.” That’s a specious piece of political logic that would mean no public money ever being spent on anything other than drugs to treat the coronavirus.
The truth is that all aircraft require routine maintenance and repainting every few years. Refurbishing an existing aircraft is much cheaper than buying a new one, and it saves money being wasted on expensive charter flights for official business. Commercial airlines routinely repaint their aircraft and change their liveries as a way of promoting the company brand. Why should it be any different for UK plc? Do we really want our leaders or senior members of the royal family travelling in a plane that looks as if it’s on its last legs? Marketing Britain to the world is going to be crucial in the years ahead and there is a great deal to be said for “waving the flag abroad”.
It’s a point not lost on other world leaders who travel in branded and specially modified aircraft to promote their countries. President Macron of France, who visited Britain yesterday for crucial talks, has at his disposal several specially modified aircraft, including an Airbus. Germany’s Angela Merkel has a number of planes, all equipped with anti-missile defence technology, for official trips. President Trump has two planes under the call sign Air Force One, heavily modified Boeing 747-200Bs equipped with a secure communications centre, as well as offices and a medical suite.
Projecting a strong and confident image on the world stage is a vital part of every nation’s diplomatic armoury, so what exactly is wrong with spending a tiny fraction of our overall GDP on an updated official aircraft to help sell Britishness to the world, and in a colour other than grey? The sneering should stop.