On June 5, The Sunday Telegraph reported that Tony Blair had decided in 1997 that the Royal Yacht Britannia should be decommissed. He was far from blameless, but not in the way that the article suggested, as Alistair Lexden showed in a letter published in The Daily Telegraph on June 11.
SIR--Tony Blair was not responsible for the decision to decommission the Royal Yacht Britannia (report, 5 June).
Blame rests with John Major’s Cabinet and in particular with its Chancellor, Ken Clarke, who insisted bizarrely in 1995 that maintaining it at taxpayers’ expense would “damage public support for the royal family”. He was, however, forced to accept in January 1997 that it should be replaced by a new Royal Yacht which would be presented to Her Majesty during her Golden Jubilee celebrations in 2002. Blair is to blame for the failure to build it.
Lord Lexden
London SW1