Speech laying the keel of HMS Vanguard (first British Trident Submarine)

Chairman, Mr. Mayor, Ladies and Gentlemen, As I have had the privilege of going round to see your works today, so many people have asked me are you enjoying your visit?.

The answer is yes. And yes again. I am enjoying it for very many reasons. I believe this company—yes, I am still enjoying it and the free speech which we defend and you help in this factory to defend. I am enjoying it because I believe this company is pointing the way to the future, the future in which I am interested, pointing the way in the new structure which the company has under which those who work in the company also own the company. This signals a new partnership, a new and more successful way of work. It is an example to others and it augurs well not only for the future of VSEL but for the future of this area and for the future of British industry. And secondly I am enjoying it because I have the chance to see what I have heard and read about so often, the success of this company and the excellence of the work which it does for our armed forces. To see it is exciting, to see the spirit of the overwhelming majority of our people who work here is exciting, and it gives me great faith in this company as a main defence contractor to Her Majesty's armed forces. Enjoying it also because as I go round I notice that each and every turn you are not satisfied with existing performance, you are constantly looking for new improvements, new ways to work, new designs, using new computer tools, saying that those who supply you with equipment have also the same standard of excellence and look to the future as you do. For all those reasons, one finds it very exciting indeed. But let me turn to the immediate matter which is that it is a great privilege and honour to lay the keel of this new kind of submarine, HMS VANGUARD. You of course are outstanding at building submarines and we gladly acknowledge that, although you have [end p1] come a very long way since the first submarine was built, HMS HOLLAND in 1901. But you have always kept your outstanding skill in building submarines and also of course in building warships and may I say too in the other parts of your factory, the armaments factory, which are doing so well.

HMS VANGUARD is important. It's important to the defence of our country and when you judge the strength of a country, when you judge its spirit, one of the tests you use is to say well are those people willing to defend their country if they believe in it? Yes, we are willing to defend it, and how do we defend it? I would give you some ground rules which I myself use.

First we must ensure that we have the best and most professional armed forces anywhere in the world, and we do. And we are profoundly grateful for their professionalism, their courage, their bravery, their excellence. Second, when we have those supreme servicemen, it is our bounden duty to see that they have the very best equipment, best designs, best produced, best maintained, best cooperation between those who use the equipment and those who build it. And what I have seen today is, yes, we have the very best equipment. And then the third thing. No only the very best equipment, but we have to be right up front in technology. Yes, we have to be right up front in nuclear technology because if a potential aggressor has that technology we could not possibly deter him unless ours was as good as his and preferably better. My generation is constantly grateful for the fact that at the end of the last war it was the free world that got the secret of the nuclear weapon first because had it been Hitler who had got it first we perhaps would not be here today enjoying the freedom of life we do. So yes, we have to have nuclear submarines, we have to have the nuclear weapon because that is the very latest technology [end p2] and we must have it for that reason. So that we may continue to enjoy in future years the peace we have enjoyed for the last forty years. And so I come to HMS VANGUARD. I have had the privilege of going on the Polaris submarine for a short time. The people who command them, the people who go to sea in them are quite outstanding. They take their duties to us seriously, we take our duties to them equally seriously. And so I am glad and proud to be associated with laying the keel of this first HMS VANGUARD ship which will carry Trident because I believe that it will keep the peace which is the greatest desire of all of us. May I congratulate you all who work in this great company whether you are working on submarines, whether you are working over in the Cammell Laird, and we did try to do what we could for their workforce, because at one time they were so courageous in standing out against things which are difficult to stand up for and also congratulate those who work with the artillery division of Vickers. You are doing wonderfully well, if I may say so. May you long continue and may the work which you are doing enable it to be continually true, as the band played at the beginning of our great ceremony, may Britannia continue to rule the waves and stay a country free with justice and in peace.