As has been said the French lost the fleet as it decided to go German. Yup, we will attack our enemies, especially when the neutral fleet decided this.

On the TV the Navy just said that it is unlikely that there is a threat that needs to be met at sea. I hope he's got his CV up to date.

I feel that the Americans owe us some help if there were another conflict. It hardly needs to be getting their hands dirty, just get some subs to release some cruise missiles at Max range, then slip away again. No one need to know for certain that it was them that did it.

I agree that sabre rattling is the likely order of the day. That and George would love a cheap, quick battle to win means it'd be a bad idea to get involved at the moment.