A big navy that can operate almost anywhere in the globe is no longer necessary. There is no chance of war in Europe due to everyone being in the EU. Any war on Europe's eastern borders would require land and air power more than sea power and the USA and Canada take care of our Atlantic flank. We should be thankful that we live in a quiet corner of the world and make our navy so that it can defend our coasts and undrego humanitarian missions rather than fight a major war in some distant sea.

The flare up in the Falklands dispute shows precicely why we still need a major navy that can intervene all over the world. We still have interests all over the globe that may need to be defended. They may be small but this does not mean we should just abandon them. If we had a small costal defence force Argentina would just be able to walk in and take the Falklands while we could do nothing. The USA has shown during this dispute that we cannot rely on the US to defend our interests even if we seem to be reliable when it comes to defending theirs.

Reducing our navy to a costal defence force would not mean that we get rid of the navy entirely, we would still have a 'water defence'. A costal defence force would mean getting rid of expensive elements such as the nuclear submarines, but would probably keep some attack submarines for defensive purposes. There would be no need of the carriers and their escorts but we would still need some destroyers and frigates.

Despite globalisation, the world is not becoming Pangaea once more; Britain remains an island; a piece of land surrounded by water. Given the small size of Britain compared to wealth and population, we are a prime target for sea invasion. We have a small wealthy piece of land surrounded by seas; we would be the perfect invasion target for pirates, were it not for our Navy. Our Navy maybe expensive, with the Government committed to “replacing Trident and to building two £4billion, 64,000-tonne aircraft carriers”^[1], but this money is needed to create a powerful presence to scare predators away. By having protection in sea, not only around our island but in far corners of the earth, we are sending a message to all those that use the sea that we are well prepared for sea invasion. This is prevention rather than cure and it would be so much more effective than waiting for the predators to enter our waters.

1. ^ http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article7011651.ece

We think that the main duties of all the Ministry of defense service, including the Navy, we think of starting war and defending against attack. However, the duties of the Navy extend far beyond this.

The navy is called upon if there is a natural disaster to provide aid to the country that needs it. The navy rescues those who have entered the waters of another territory or a conflict zone. And they protect trade routes which aid our economy.

These tasks do not take place locally but further afield and if the budget is cut any further we will not be able to complete these further afield missions. But it would be just as if not more so costly to replace the Navy with other defense mechanisms.

There are many countries that have had their once world beating navys reduced to territorial defence. The Portugese were the greatest naval power for most of the 15th century and into the 16th, Netherlands was the greatest Naval power in the middle of the 17th Century. Neither of these powers have significant navies today.

Keeping imperialist ideas that we need to have one of the world's biggest navies alive is pointless, we are a declining power with few overseas assets. Our trade is equally protected by the US navy and the navys of other powers. We should play a part in this as sea trade routes are a global commons but this does not require more than a few destroyers of frigates.

With the Navy having such grand architectural defence units, the breadth of its services to this country and given its pride in its history, it would be an embarrassment to have the Navy’s role reduced to merely that of territorial self defence. It would be something like Dad’s Army, staying around the country because it is incapable of going any further. This simply is not true of the Navy is adequate and well budgeted funding is afforded to it. The navy can achieve great things, and it has done in the past. To give it a lesser role is nothing but demeaning.

And during the 17th Century Britain was conquering the world with a navy - the Dutch did not have the largest.

Show me the naval power that Nato has to fight and this might be a valid point. At the moment the top naval powers are the USA, France and Britain, all Nato members. Our only potential enemy is Russia because Indian and Chinese navies are considerably out of area for Nato. Russia's navy would probably fall to bits if it sailed out of port to challenge Nato - as per the Kursk disaster.

NATO is the North Atlantic Treaty Obligation. It is an agreement between Europe and North America to keep their north Atlantic territory safe. Given that this organization turned 60 last year, it would be a further embarrassment to the UK Government to turn around and state that it can no longer held to achieve the objectives of the Treaty. NATO is a pact of security through solidarity. If Britain starts to fall behind in their objectives, NATO would start to see us as a burden, them protecting us without us giving anything back. NATO seeks to achieve its objectives not only in a military field but in the political field. Given this, Britain could loose political standing through this embarrassment. Therefore, we should keep the Navy’s role exactly how it is.

Britain has the second largest naval force in NATO. With the government pumping £35 billion pounds every year with 60,000 employees. We are a wealthy nation and an Island nation - so if anything we need a Navy. We are surrounded by sea, how are we going to defend our shores?

"Rule Britannia, Britannia rules the waves" Our nations history and heritage was built by the navy. We need to remain a global power and a major Naval power. Hundreds of thousands of jobs (not just in the Royal Navy) but in other industries rely on naval and defence spending.

It would be a disgrace to cut funding. We still need to show the world Britain is a military power... or we will we walked all over my other nations; like Spain and Argentina (of whom both claim sovereignty over Gibraltar and the Falklands)

For example look at the link below... http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article7029609.ece

We can only deal with this situation with a strong and well-funded navy,