There are those who will claim that Sir Keir Starmer has handled the UK’s response to America’s war with Iran skilfully and diplomatically. That said, one in ten of the population believes in astrology, so fringe positions will always attract some support. I would not even be sure the Prime Minister himself belongs to this particular clique.

Starmer does, though, seem conscious that his stance was too passive and inscrutable when Operation Epic Fury began on 28 February and has been playing catch-up since then. The latest proposal for Britain’s contribution to containing and managing the conflict has been discreetly briefed to journalists. To look active, it is proposed that the Royal Navy charter civilian vessels and deploy them to the Gulf region, where they can act as motherships for autonomous sub-sea mine-hunting craft – submarine drones, in other words.

There is a centuries-old British tradition of complementing the Royal Navy’s capabilities with ships taken up from trade (STUFT). Older readers will remember the SS Atlantic Conveyor, a container ship pressed into service transporting helicopters and aircraft during the Falklands war and sunk by Argentinian anti-ship missiles. One anonymous defence source attempted to make this idea sound like an innovative and forward-looking strategy:

Absent is any sense of the likely conditions under which the mission would take place

Absent is any sense of the likely conditions under which the mission would take place

You’ve got an opportunity, potentially........

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