I listened to Portillo's programme with interest.
I laughed at Pete Brother's remark about the Navy having had its moment at Trafalgar, and I did feel that there was a bit of petty-minded envy going on in the way in which the RN was trying to muscle in on the credit for preventing invasion.
There's no doubt that taking the French Navy out of the equation was of crucial importance in winning the war, but surely the loss of the Prince of Wales, and the Repulse, demonstrated pretty conclusively what would have happened to the RN, had we relied on it to stop a cross-channel invasion, without air superiority. The Stuka and Ju 88 boys would have had a field day.
And that's why the RN remained at Scapa Flow, and that's why they didn't deploy cruisers and destroyers into the channel and the Solent to beef up the AA defences.
No-one would dispute that sea power played a pivotal role in WWII, but the recent efforts to diminish the importance of air power in preventing invasion and in defeating the U-boat menace are pretty silly.