For centuries, the sudden shape of a Royal Navy warship on the horizon has been a symbol to Britons around the world that order was coming.
From Nelson’s victories over Revolutionary and Napoleonic France, to the West Africa Squadron’s unprecedented 19th century anti-slavery patrols, through to Dunkirk and modern-day disaster relief operations in Sierra Leone and Lebanon; Britain’s global power and reputation was built on her maritime prowess.
But when HMS Dragon finally heaves into view off the coast of Cyprus, alone, a full two weeks after a solitary Iranian drone managed to puncture RAF defences here, hitting the Akrotiri base on March 2, there will be no cheers of relief.
Instead, thanks to the staggering incompetence of Sir Keir Starmer’s government, her arrival will only serve to enforce a growing sense on these shores that Britain is a country in decline.
‘I think more people are now thinking that the British Army, the Navy, the RAF, is not actually the organised military that they thought it was,’ Tasos Kosteas, head of the Cyprus Peace Council, tells me, standing outside the gates of RAF Akrotiri. ‘People’s first thought of the British was that they are very organised and are ready to confront such incidents.
‘But now – and I say this with many Britons who are my friends – I think maybe Britain is not really ready for something like this. It is no more a great country. They are not ready for such provocations.’
HMS Dragon leaves Portsmouth harbour for Cyprus on Tuesday
Family and friends wave goodbye to their crewmembers as HMS Dragon finally sets sail
The 60-year-old Cypriot has been calling for RAF Akrotiri and Dhekelia Cantonment, its sister Sovereign Base Area (SBA), to be closed for all his life, having sat on the peace council for 40 years.
For decades, the council has made the case that, since the country won independence from the UK in 1960, the bases are a colonial hangover that only bring trouble. Now, he senses something has changed.
‘We have the moral support of the majority of the Cypriot people,’ he tells me. ‘We have the proof that the British military bases in Cyprus are a danger.’
He is not the only one to think so. ‘What was it Trump said – “We don’t need your battleship”?’ says Andreas Philis, 74, a retired technician in the Cypriot army as he plays cards at a cafe.
He adds: ‘England used to be very good. But now England is coming down – you don’t know what to do.
‘It’s not very good, is it? You have the air base – it belongs to you, and you wait for Greece and Italy and France to protect your air base.’
Over the past two weeks, the British government has been projecting nothing but weakness to the Cypriots.
Having refused US permission to use British bases for its joint-Israeli strikes against Iran on February 28, Starmer dithered and then U-turned to allow them usage for ‘defensive’ strikes the following day. Then, at 12.03am local time on March 2, a solitary Iranian Shahed drone fired from Lebanon managed to make the 30-minute flight 100 miles across the Mediterranean undetected and smacked into RAF Akrotiri on the southern peninsula.
The fact it had not been picked up by radar meant nearly all 1,100 residents of Akrotiri were forced to evacuate as a precaution.
‘I think more people are now thinking the British Army, the Navy, the RAF, is not actually the organised military they thought it was,’ says Tasos Kosteas, head of the Cyprus Peace Council
Elizabeth Toumazou, 21, who works at a cafe, describes the feelings towards Britain now as ‘complicated’
There was not a single Royal Navy ship on standby to relieve and reassure the Cypriots. Instead, it was the military minnow of Greece whose two warships arrived first within 48 hours.
Britain’s humiliation continued. As HMS Dragon languished in dry dock in Portsmouth, a French frigate and then aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle arrived. Spain sent a frigate and a supply ship. Even the Italians arrived in Cypriot waters on Wednesday – the day after HMS Dragon finally set sail.
Emmanuel Macron basked in our ignominy, embracing president of Cyprus Nikos Christodoulides in Paphos and telling his people they can ‘count on France’. The unspoken message was clear – you can no longer count on Britain. ‘It hurt a bit,’ said British-Cypriot Christine Wilson, 46, of the drone strike and the government’s response.
‘Thankfully, nobody was hurt, but our reputation . . .’ she added, looking down at her shoes.
After the Greek Cypriot nationalist insurgency against Britain, a treaty was struck in 1960 that granted the Cypriot people independence but stipulated that the SBAs of Akrotiri and Dhekelia must remain as British Overseas Territory. For many Cypriots, from that day the SBAs were viewed as an offensive colonial hangover and tens of thousands would protest at the gates.
But when Turkey invaded the north in 1974, for many, suddenly the bases became a refuge.
‘People flocked there seeking security, as they felt Turkey wouldn’t hit the bases,’ Giorgos Konstantinos, deputy mayor of Akrotiri, says. This feeling was cemented as the ‘green line’ drawn up to separate Turkish-occupied northern Cyprus from the south is marked on its easternmost point by Dhekelia.
The drone strike has left locals rattled. Elizabeth Toumazou, 21, who works at a cafe nearby says: ‘I was in Akrotiri. I didn’t hear anything but I was so terrified that it would hit us. We were really scared.’ She describes the feelings towards Britain now as ‘complicated’.
Others tell of feeling ‘panic and terror’ with mother-of-three Maria Pavlou asking: ‘Why haven’t the British done more to protect us? We don’t just feel exposed. We feel totally let down.’
Daniel Maricic, 46, who owns Ryan’s Bar and Grill by the base, says his restaurant has remained deserted since the attack. ‘If it continues this way for two or three weeks I will have to close,’ he says.
Andreas Philis, 74, a retired technician in the Cypriot army says: ‘England used to be very good. But now England is coming down – you don’t know what to do’
Locals had been told the extensive radar that blights some of the island’s foremost beauty spots is essential to their safety. Yet after this radar failed to detect the drone, the entire village had to be evacuated as a precaution – hammering the very people who support the base the most as nearly all owe their livelihood to it.
This was then compounded by Britain’s tardy response.
Stefanos Stefanou, leader of the main opposition Left-wing Akel party, says the delayed deployment of HMS Dragon had ‘helped fuel anger. It’s created this sense that the UK is more interested in protecting the bases than Cyprus’.
Nasia Hadjigeorgiou, assistant professor in transitional justice and human rights at the University of Central Lancashire, Cyprus, adds that it will have ‘crystallised’ in some Cypriots’ minds a growing sense that the bases do not in fact make them more secure. In fact, quite the reverse. ‘I think people will have seen how quickly other European states reacted who didn’t have to react at all. It was Britain who had the main responsibility and yet they were slow to react,’ she adds.
Former First Sea Lord Admiral West warned in the House of Lords as early as January that Britain must ‘send ships to the sound of guns’ in the Middle East but it fell on deaf ears.
‘What have we done?’ he asked, exasperated. ‘We actually withdrew everything from the region. There wasn’t a single ship between Gibraltar and Singapore. I’ve never known the Navy like that.
‘I’m glad that the Allies are rallying around to work with us against Iran, but it would be a great pretence to pretend that it isn’t humiliating and embarrassing that a great maritime nation like the UK has huge difficulty in generating one destroyer.’
As HMS Dragon comes into view off the headland in the coming days, her arrival will bring not reassurance but a question: if Britain cannot even defend its bases, what business does it have keeping them?