Navy to reduce to smallest size ever to save carriers - Telegraph
"......Navy sources have said that the reduction would mean Britain would find it "extremely difficult" to protect sea lanes on which 90 per cent of the country's trade relies....."
Exactly who are we protecting these sea lanes from? These "sea lanes" are not the exclusive property of UK plc, they are the same sea lanes carrying traffic to Rotterdam, Kiel, Antwerp, etc..... Who is to know the destination of a ship on the high seas (actually its easy now with AIS), or to know that 10% of its cargo is going to Hull, but 90% is going to Rotterdam. Most merchant shipping is also internationally owned these days, very little is British, so any attack is likely to create international protests.
The north atlantic has no pirates in it these days, nor are our "merchantmen" being plundered by the French or Spanish galleons - so once again I ask who these sea lanes are being protected from? Are we once again back to the WW3 scenario, defending reinforcement traffic from the USA against Russian subs? If so don't give me this "90% of country's trade" guff as an excuse.
I also thought that a large proportion of the UK's trade, well over 10%, was now with Europe. So a large proportion of these "sea lanes" are actually in the Channel and the North Sea, let alone being under the sea, in terms of HGVs on the Eurotunnel!