HMS Invincible, pride of the Falklands, is broken up in knacker's yard

As senior Naval officers back First Sea Lord Admiral Sir Mark Stanhope's criticisms of the ability of the Navy to fight in Libya, Commander John Muxworthy, who sailed to the Falklands with the Royal Navy Task Force, looks at the ignominious end of a symbol of the once-mighty British fleet.

The image is a poignant symbol of Britain’s rapid decline as a maritime power. With her metallic carcass exposed, the once mighty aircraft carrier HMS Invincible languishes in a Turkish port, being broken up for scrap.

The ship was once the pride of the Royal Navy, a hero of the Falklands War and a veteran of other conflicts from Iraq to Yugoslavia.

But now, as Britain’s naval heritage is obliterated by an irresponsible Coalition Government, she faces an utterly degrading end.

HMS Invincible sits in the Port of Aliaga, Turkey, earlier this year, waiting to be scrapped and recycled

Unseemly death of a courageous veteran: Like a tired but noble beast brought down by jackals, HMS Invincible's carcass is picked clean in a Turkish scrapyard

British Embassy Attack in Yemen

Foreign Secretary William Hague has condemned the "shameful" rocket attack on a convoy carrying the deputy British ambassador to Yemen.

Fionna Gibb escaped unhurt from the blast in the capital Sana'a, which injured one of her colleagues.

It is the second time in six months that British officials have been targeted in the country.

Tim Torlot, the then British ambassador to Yemen, was unharmed when a suicide bomber wearing a school uniform detonated an explosives belt in April.

Rocket fired at British embassy vehicle in Yemen

A rocket attack in the Yemeni capital Sanaa today targeted a vehicle carrying the deputy chief of the British mission in Yemen and a gunman opened fire at an Austrian-owned oil and gas firm, killing a Frenchman.

The shootings could be one of a number of high profile al Qaeda attacks targeting Yemen’s government, which earlier this year declared war on the group’s Yemeni arm after it claimed a failed attack on a US-bound airliner in December.

A police vehicle is seen at the scene of a rocket attack that targeted a vehicle carrying the deputy chief of the British mission in Sanaa October 6, 2010.

UK, France to share aircraft carriers

Britain and France are getting ready to unveil plans to share aircraft carriers amid pressure on the British military to cut costs, the Times newspaper reported today.

British Prime Minister David Cameron and French President Nicholas Sarkozy were expected to announce the proposal at a November summit, the Times said, quoting an unidentified British naval source for its information.

No immediate comment was available from British officials on the report.

Awesome courage of the D-Day piper who the Nazis thought was mad

Under the fire of Nazi guns and wading through a sea turning crimson with the blood of fallen colleagues, Bill Millin struggled towards the Normandy sands.

Waist deep in water, he led the commandos of the 1st Special Service Brigade on to the beach as they fought to their deaths on the most famous day of World War II.

Amid the clatter of battle and dreadful cries of the injured, Millin only just caught the five words that turned him into a hero. 'Give us "Highland Laddie" man!' shouted Lord Lovat, the charismatic Chief of Clan Fraser and Brigadier of the 2,500 commandos, who was determined to put some backbone into his invading forces.


Piper Bill Millin played again on the Normandy beaches to celebrate the the 35th anniversary of the D-Day Landings

Winston Churchill's 'Few' speech marks Battle of Britain's 70th anniversary

Churchill's daughter Lady Soames was among hundreds of people to mark the 70th Anniversary

Under a slate grey sky, the words of Winston Churchill rang defiantly around Westminster: 'Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few.'

It may be 70 years old, but the resounding call to arms during the Battle of Britain still stiffened the sinew bringing pride and not a few tears yesterday.

Churchill's famous address was delivered by actor Robert Hardy at 3.52pm - exactly the time they were originally spoken in Parliament by the wartime Prime Minister on August 20, 1940.

UK police hold two over MI6 parcel bomb

A general view of the MI6 headquarters in London

British police questioned two men yesterday after a parcel bomb was sent to the headquarters of the MI6 foreign intelligence service and another was intercepted at a postal sorting office.

“The Metropolitan Police Service is investigating two suspect packages addressed to premises in central London,” a Scotland Yard spokesman said, declining to give details of the devices.

Hundreds of British troops launch Operation Black Prince in fresh surge to clear Taliban

Talking tactics: Troops conducting final planning preparations for Operation TOR SHEZADA (Black Prince)

British troops launched a massive push against Taliban insurgents yesterday.

In the biggest offensive of the summer, hundreds set out by land and air on Operation Tor Shezada - Black Prince - before dawn.

Led by 1st Battalion, The Duke Of Lancaster's Regiment, the operation aims to seize the rebel-held town of Saidabad in Nad-e Ali district in southern Helmand Province.

Britain General Election 2010: voters go to the polls in tightest election in decades

elford and Wrekin Council employees prepare the Iron Bridge Toll House in Shropshire as a polling station for the Parliamentary and Local Election

Millions of people across Britain will today go to the polls in the most tightly-contested General Election in a generation.

A string of eve-of-election opinion polls gave David Cameron's Conservatives a clear lead over Labour and the Liberal Democrats, but suggested that the Tories will not reach the level of support they need to claim an overall majority in the House of Commons.

With around 50,000 polling stations opening at 7am today, there was more uncertainty about who would eventually emerge as Prime Minister than in any election since 1992 and a real expectation of a hung Parliament for the first time since 1974.

On Wednesday night David Cameron urged the public not to allow fear to “triumph over hope” as he sought an outright victory with a final appeal to millions of undecided voters.

The Tory leader completed a gruelling 36-hour campaigning drive across the country with a pledge that he could make Britain better.

Election 2010: Tories to target Labour heartlands

The Conservatives hope to build on their opinion poll lead

The Conservatives are to step up campaigning in seats where Labour are defending healthy majorities, in the wake of the Lib Dem poll surge.

Tory strategists have identified a number of seats where they believe support for Labour is ebbing away.

Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg has said first-past-the-post votes made "no sense at all" in a three-party system.

Lord Mandelson has warned Labour voters in Labour/Tory marginals: "Vote Nick, get Dave and George".

Labour will focus campaigning on its plans for the NHS on Monday, while the Lib Dems are highlighting their plans for a pay rise for junior ranks in the armed forces.

BBC political correspondent Ben Wright said the surge in the polls for the Lib Dems, in the wake of TV prime ministerial debates, had upset both the Tories' and Labour's election strategies.

British politics-Leaders square up for second debate-Questions over Lib Dem leader's funding before TV debate

Nick Clegg


David Cameron, Gordon Brown and Nick Clegg

The leaders of the three major parties will go head-to-head in the second live televised debate of the General Election campaign.

The debate in Bristol is expected to see Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg come under pressure from his two rivals, after his widely-praised performance in last week's broadcast gave his party a boost of up to 12 points in the polls, transforming the election into a real three-horse race.

Labour's Gordon Brown and Conservative leader David Cameron will seek to highlight Lib Dem policies on the Trident nuclear deterrent and the European Union, which they believe will prove unattractive to voters.

Brown's betrayal: Defence cuts 'cost lives of soldiers' in Iraq, claim top brass

Brirish lives were lost in Iraq and Afghanistan because Gordon Brown denied the Armed Forces vital equipment, two former military chiefs have claimed.

The Prime Minister will today face questions over damaging claims that he 'betrayed' UK troops by chopping £1billion from the defence budget at the height of the Iraq war.

Speaking on the eve of the Premier's appearance at the Chilcot Inquiry into the war, Sir Graeme Lamb, former head of the SAS, and General Lord Guthrie, a former chief of the defence staff, both spoke out on Mr Brown's record as Chancellor.
Sir Graeme, who advises General Stanley McChrystal, commander of the U.S. military in Afghanistan, said British troops were deprived of equipment that could have saved lives.

He blamed senior politicians and civil servants for undermining our military strength.

He warned the Armed Forces were 'pretty much doomed on our current course and thinking' and would become the 'dumpster of irrelevancy' unless given proper equipment.

'The future is bloody grim either way,' he said, adding that the Armed Forces were clearly in decline and increasingly seen as irrelevant by the public and politicians.
Sir Graeme told the Daily Telegraph that until recently Afghanistan had been ' stumbling toward failure'.

General Lord Guthrie of Craigiebank, who led the Armed Forces from 1997 to 2001, told the Times that budget shortages had cost lives. 'Not fully funding the Army in the way they had asked ... undoubtedly cost the lives of soldiers,' he said.

'He [Mr Brown] should be asked why he was so unsympathetic towards defence and so sympathetic to other departments.'

The Prime Minister will give his first account of his role in the deeply unpopular Iraq conflict today.

Some of his Cabinet colleagues expect him to offer some gesture of contrition over deaths of servicemen and women.

Others are furious that the Prime Minister agreed to face the inquiry at all in the weeks before the election, fearing it is reminding wavering voters of Labour's most controversial decision.

The Prime Minister is expected to be pressed on private discussions with Cabinet colleagues in the build-up to the conflict, his decisions on funding as Chancellor and his withdrawal of troops as Prime Minister.

The Tories and the LibDems said it was right that Mr Brown is being called to account before the election.

He pointed to evidence from Sir Kevin Tebbit, the former top civil servant at the Ministry of Defence, that he had been forced to run a 'crisis budget' after Mr implemented a 'complete guillotine' on funding in September

The then Chancellor was also present at meetings with MoD officials when the budget for 2004 was 2003. reached.

Mr Clegg said minutes and notes relevant to these decisions should be declassified by the Government and made public before Mr Brown's appearance.

He added: 'Today is the day that Gordon Brown wished would never come: The myth that this was solely Tony Blair's war is about to fall apart.'

Last year, the Government took the unprecedented step of vetoing the release of Cabinet minutes under freedom of information laws that were expected to reveal Mr Brown's private support for military action.

Alastair Campbell, the former No 10 communications director, has told the inquiry that Mr Brown was one of the inner circle of key ministers consulted by Mr Blair in the run-up to the invasion.
HELICOPTER NUMBERS CUT BY HALF

The number of helicopters available to British troops will have halved by the end of the decade, it was revealed last night.

Ministry of Defence figures show there will be 303 in the fleet by 2020, compared with 634 a month before the Iraq War began in March 2003.

Military commanders have warned that a shortage of 'rotary-wing' aircraft can mean that service personnel are forced to move around the battlefield by road - leaving them vulnerable to bombs.

Tory MP Bernard Jenkin, a member of the Defence Select Committee, has uncovered Parliamentary answers which show the Government plans to cut the fleet drastically over the next ten years.

In February 2003 the MoD had 634 helicopters, but by July 2008 this has been reduced to 522 helicopters.

Despite claims by Gordon Brown that military chiefs had enough helicopters, and the announcement in December that Britain was buying another 22 troop-carrying Chinooks, this month the number of choppers stood at 492.

And the fleet will total just 303 by the end of the decade, according to official figures.

Mr Jenkin said: 'Helicopters are vital in the effort to improve battlefield mobility and reduce casualties and we need more not less of them, but Gordon Brown still doesn't seem to understand this.

'This goes back to his 2004 decision to cut the helicopter budget by £1.4billion at a time when we were already involved in two wars.'

The MoD said: 'While overall numbers have reduced, the capability of our helicopter fleet has in fact increased. Better aircraft have allowed increases in both the numbers of battlefield support helicopters available on operations and the flying hours they can provide.'



'Penny-pinching': Gordon Brown on a visit to Iraq in December 2008

Sacrifice: Private Adam Morris, 19, was killed in Basra in 2006 when his Snatch Land Rover struck a roadside bomb

Prince William to help Queen daily works as Queen is 83 years old.Sign William will succeed father to be King.

Burden: The Queen, now aged 83, is said to need relief from some duties

Censored: The blacked-out words in the Treasury note say 'But as Sir Michael¿s letter sets out, the Princes will increasingly incur expenditure when undertaking engagements on behalf of The Queen'

Kate was spotted at a Christmas carol concert in London last week.Prince William girlfriend.

Princess in waiting: Will William soon get engaged to girlfriend Kate Middleton?

Ominous sign: William in his RAF flying uniform, wants to 'make a difference'

1985: William (front centre) at Trooping of the Colour with his mother Diana

Proud: The Queen and William as she inspects Sandhurst graduates in 2006

Trooping the Colour: William with the Queen and other royals in June

Sidelined? The move will fuel rumours that the Queen believes William, rather than her son Charles, represents the best long-term interests of the monarchy

The Queen is to hand over a substantial part of her public duties to Prince William to help him prepare for the day when he becomes King, according to a confidential document obtained by The Mail on Sunday.

Secret papers reveal that plans to ease the strain on the 83-year-old monarch and her 88-year-old husband, Prince Philip, are at an advanced stage.

The disclosures come despite months of denials from the Palace that the Queen was planning to step back from her official work in favour of her 27-year-old grandson.

The information is contained in a briefing note written by Chancellor Alistair Darling’s Treasury officials about new financial arrangements for Prince Charles and his sons.

Key paragraphs, disclosing the reason for the changes, are blacked out.

But this newspaper has obtained an uncensored version of the document which confirms that the Queen is grooming William as a ‘Shadow King’.

One blacked-out line states that ‘the Princes [William and Harry] will increasingly incur expenditure when undertaking engagements on behalf of The Queen’.

Another censored section, stressing the key role for William, says that ‘from next year, it is expected that HRH The Prince William will spend a significant part of his time on official engagements . . . we need to put the necessary provisions in place in anticipation of that’.

The leak will add to speculation that the Queen believes William, rather than Charles, represents the best long-term interests of the monarchy, and will raise new questions about the timing of William’s long-anticipated engagement to his girlfriend Kate Middleton.

The breach of secrecy caused alarm at the Palace last night, with a senior Royal source expressing concern that the private details had been leaked in ‘unredacted’ - the official term for uncensored - form.

The reaction reflects the extreme sensitivity over the issue of the Queen’s future in public life - and how to promote Prince William without undermining the monarch or Prince Charles.

It is bound to lead to new speculation that when the Queen dies, the monarchy could skip a generation, with the Crown bypassing Charles and being handed straight to William, although Royal sources strongly discount this option.

The Treasury document was prepared for Mr Darling in the run-up to April’s Budget.

The announcement that he was granting Charles tax relief worth hundreds of thousands of pounds, by allowing him to deduct his sons’ official expenses from his tax return, was slipped out on Budget Day in a separate ministerial note and was picked up by newspapers only several days later.

The tax perk funds an office at St James’s Palace, with six members of staff, which for the past few months has been organising the affairs of Princes William and Harry. Previously, the Princes had been represented by Charles’s staff.

The briefing note, released following a Freedom of Information request, contained a third blacked-out section which showed that the entire operation to transfer duties to William was orchestrated by the Queen and Prince Charles.

It shows that the approach to the Government was made by Sir Michael Peat, Charles’s private secretary, who is also a confidant of the Queen.

Between 1996 and 2002, when he took up his position with Charles, Sir Michael was Keeper of the Privy Purse and Treasurer to the Queen.

The redacted section states: ‘Sir Michael Peat, The Prince of Wales’ Principal Private Secretary, has written to Dave Hartnett [Permanent Secretary at HM Revenue & Customs] asking HMRC to consider amending the MoU [ Memorandum of Understanding] to recognise this expenditure [on the Princes’ office].’

The previous MoU on Royal Taxation had been agreed in 1993.

Charles currently receives £16million a year from the Duchy of Cornwall estate, which was established in 1337 to provide an income for the heir to the throne.

The disclosure comes amid growing speculation about the Queen and Prince Philip’s continued ability to carry out their punishing schedule.

Last year, she performed 400 official engagements, including two overseas tours.

Onlookers said she appeared more frail than usual during last month’s State Opening of Parliament and at the Commonwealth summit in Trinidad a week later, the couple’s only foreign trip this year.

In February, she cancelled a State visit to the Middle East because she and the Duke ‘had too much on their plate’ - the first time an overseas visit had been abandoned on workload grounds.
Significantly, William will undertake his first official overseas tour in January when he represents the Queen in New Zealand and Australia. He is also expected to attend the World Cup in South Africa.

Publicly, the Palace has denied any plans for the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh to scale down their responsibilities, always insisting that the pair are in ‘robust’ health - although Royal sources have let it be known that theQueen would like other family members to bear much of the burden of her duties during the Diamond Jubilee in 2012.

Enquiries direct to the Duke about his fitness have been met with a curt: ‘Do I look bloody ill?’

Last night a spokesman for Republic, which campaigns for an elected Head of State, accused Buckingham Palace and the Government of mounting a cover-up.

‘We have been misled,’ the spokesman said. ‘This shows that planning is well under way to prepare for the next succession.

'Here we have proof that the Palace is preparing William to take over the Queen’s duties.

‘The Palace operates in secrecy, doing deals behind the back of the British people to ensure a smooth transition to the next King.

‘In addition, we discover that at a time of recession, Charles is secretly lobbying for an exclusive tax break worth hundreds of thousands of pounds a year.

'The fact the Treasury attempted to cover up this lobbying shows they knew it would be scandalous if made public.’

A spokesman for St James’s Palace said: ‘Both Prince William and Prince Harry have gradually increased the number of engagements they carry out in support of the Queen, although their focus remains on their full-time careers in the Armed Services.

‘The Royal Household and HMRC agreed to update the Memorandum of Understanding for the first time in many years to reflect changes in the Royal Family. The previous Memorandum still included the Princess of Wales and not Prince William or Prince Harry.

‘The new MoU merely streamlined the bureaucratic arrangements concerning Prince William’s and Prince Harry’s official lives.

‘The new MoU made no difference to the amount of tax paid by the Prince’s Household.’

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$90 million pound gift to Loreal Chairman cause legal batte.Loreal heiress Liliane sue by daughter for not in the right mind easily tricked .

Gift: L'Oreal heiress Liliane Bettencourt gave Sir Lindsay Owen-Jones £90m as a 'thank you' present, it was claimed today

Liliane Bettencourt (left) and her daughter Francoise Bettencourt-Meyers during the court case against Paris photographer FranÁois-Marie Banier in 2007

A British boss was given £90million by Europe's wealthiest woman, it was claimed yesterday.

The amount was revealed during a legal battle over lavish cash presents allegedly made by L'Oreal heiress Liliane Bettencourt.

The 87-year-old gave the money to Sir Lindsay Owen-Jones, chairman of the cosmetics and beauty giant, to thank him for overseeing the growth of the company, it was claimed.

Sir Lindsay, 63, was earning £20million in basic salary and had £14million in stock options when he stepped down as the company's chief executive three years ago.

Mrs Bettencourt owns 31 per cent of L'Oreal, the firm founded by her father, and is worth an estimated £9billion.

Her daughter, Francoise Bettencourt Meyers, 56, accuses her of frittering away the family fortune and has asked a Paris court to place her under supervision to stop her being 'manipulated' into handing out money.

Ms Bettencourt is no longer in her right mind after being ‘tricked’ into giving a French society photographer £910m, according to Ms Bettencourt Meyers.

She pressed criminal charges against photographer Francois-Marie Banier, 62, but he alleges he was not the only one to benefit from her mother’s extraordinary generosity.

Ms Bettencourt handed over the money because they were longtime friends and she was ‘sponsoring’ his work, he claimed.

But Sir Lindsay also received at least £90m, according to Mr Banier.

Sir Lindsay, 63, was chief executive of L’Oreal for 18 years until 2006 and sales increased from several billion pounds to £15bn a year while he was in charge, driving its global expansion through acquisitions.

The Oxford-educated KBE got his first job with L’Oreal as a sales rep in 1969, selling shampoo in Normandy.

Ms Bettencourt Meyers, who sits on the L’Oreal board, filed a complaint against Mr Banier last year to ensure her mother’s gifts were not triggered by an unscrupulous ‘predator’ out to exploit the elderly lady, according to her lawyer.

But lawyer Olivier Metzner drew a distinction between the cases of the British boss and the French photographer.

‘You cannot compare the case of Mr Owen-Jones with that of Mr Banier because the former never manipulated Ms Bettencourt to obtain money that he could have legitimately asked for,’ he said.

A family friend added: ‘Given the commitment shown by Sir Lindsay at the head of L’Oreal and that he helped increase the value of Ms Bettencourt’s assets by so much, one can understand why she may have wished to thank him.’

Sir Lindsay said in a statement: ‘I cannot comment on this out of respect for the commitment I made not to react one way or another in order not to favour one or other of the parties in this affair.’

Ms Bettencourt has said that her daughter, who is her only child, will receive the bulk of her fortune, but has insisted: ‘I can do what I like with my money.’

Sir Lindsay said: 'I cannot comment on this.'

A family friend said: 'Given that Sir Lindsay helped increase the value of Mrs Bettencourt's assets, one can understand why she may have wished to thank him.'

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