A letter to the Daily Telegraph which was published on 30th September 1997.

Your report (Sept. 27th) that the Government has more or less decided not to refurbish or commission a replacement for Britannia brings up the point as to why this cannot be an initiative entirely paid for by private individuals.

If the issue is the £12 million a year running costs, can we not find 120,000 individuals willing to covenant, say £100 a year each?  I certainly would be prepared to do so.  Are there not enough patriotic individuals in the City, say, to support financially the refurbishment/replacement cost of around £60 million from their own pockets?

The Government is now in the hands of those whose main preoccupation is demolishing the Britain that most of us love and respect, and reconstructing it more to the taste of Islington café society.  Offering a new Britannia to the Queen as an entirely private initiative would be a signal to Mr Blair and ministers that they are only part of the state.