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Article: Let's celebrate this victory. If the French don't like it, they can go home on the Eurostar - from Waterloo.
- Article from:
- Daily Mail (London)
- Article date:
- June 23, 2005
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2005 Solo Syndication Limited. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Byline: MAX HASTINGS
ADMIRAL Sir Alan West, First Sea Lord and head of the Royal Navy, is a fine sailor and an uncommonly nice man, who had a frigate sunk under him in the Falklands War. This week, however, he has caused generations of sea dogs to turn in their graves.
Describing next week's grand Fleet Review, he said: 'I don't want a great triumphalist thing for the Battle of Trafalgar.
That's not the point of it.
Trafalgar is a fact of history, but this is a wonderful opportunity for defence diplomacy.' Thus at Spithead, for this 200th anniversary, rival tall ships which re- enact a naval battle of the Napoleonic period (or, as we ...