Outrage has spread on Twitter with many sharing the news that Royal Navy frigates are to be constructed in France instead of Scotland, the problem is that the news is entirely false.

This article is a fact checking article, if you believe we’ve made an error you can submit a correction in line with our correction policy.

Misinformation is easily spread, the source of this isn’t only that people seem unable to read beyond the headline, it’s that the headlines can sometimes be misleading.

So bad was the mess caused by their headline, we had to write the following article.

“People have been sharing an article titled ‘French firm wins Royal Navy Type 31 frigates contract’ without actually reading it. The five Type 31 Frigates on order are being built at Rosyth in Scotland. The article from Plymouth Live, while having a bit of a ‘clickbaity’ headline, does go on to explain that the news relates to some components of the ship.

We covered this news in a less exciting way here, essentially, Thales as part of Babcock Team 31, has been selected to be the mission systems integrator for the Type 31 programme, delivering the combat system, communications systems and the navigation and bridge systems.”

No, the Type 31 Frigate is not going to be built in France

Now, in May 2021, their article has once again gone viral leading to responses like…

In addition to…

There are hundreds of tweets like the above and make no mistake, we’ve examined myths from both sides of the divide (including myths spread by the Conservatives) when it comes to shipbuilding in Scotland. You can read our article on that here.

The point of this article, I suppose, is to highlight that years after an article was published, years after a a response was offered detailing what’s actually happening people are still spreading misinformation.

We also published an article by Jonathan Chartier, a defence commentator working in Government and local government IT services, on the issues with the danger of politicising military shipbuilding in Scotland.

You can read his article by clicking here. 

The danger of politicising military shipbuilding in Scotland

George Allison
George Allison
George has a degree in Cyber Security from Glasgow Caledonian University and has a keen interest in naval and cyber security matters and has appeared on national radio and television to discuss current events. George is on Twitter at @geoallison
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64 COMMENTS

  1. Check out the spoof news reports on RAF Luton or HMS Massive and youll see from some of the responses that theres a large number of folk out there who cant wait to react to the headline without actually reading the story.
    It`s hilarious.😀

  2. The headline isn’t actually wrong, its just open to mis-interpretation. For me the responsibility is on the individual to research the story before they start gobbing-off on SM

    • The problem is the individuals who are pushing this are actively interested in mis-interpreting it.
      Take one poster, who is tweeting a screenshot of the headline, so that her followers can not actually read the article and inform themselves.

      • Exactly, you can’t simply say its the responsibility of the reader to research the truth when the damage is already done and that reader (thousands) simply won’t do so when their own prejudices are backed up by a headline and indeed many a reader are deliberately exploiting any ability to use misleading or inaccurate headlines/stories for malevolent purposes. Its in the interest of all the rest of us NOT to feed them in these pursuits. The whole historical defence by the gun lobby in the US is based on a ludicrously misrepresented sentence by a Founding Father yet it is simply now taken as fact by those who wish to actually be fact. Its pointless appealing to them to simply not do so.

        • Yeah, spend some time on twitter and it’s REALLY obvious how dangerous careless headlines can be.
          Especially with people who don’t really understand the subject….

    • I’m sorry but I have to disagree here, the headline is designed to attract traffic and isn’t as accurate as it should be as part of that effort.

      • isnt that what the media does for almost anything – the types of people who are led astray, do they really care about this anyway? – if they did they’d be better informed surely

        honoured to get a reply GA

      • True… But then as 90% of people only read the head lines, regardless it will be misinterpreted…

        • I feel this is more ragebait than clickbait as the reader could assume a complete meaning from the title, and then not bother reading the article.
          A true clickbait title would be something like “Experts STUNNED by type 31 contract winner. It’s not who YOU’RE thinking of.”

      • George,
        The headline is designed to attract traffic but that is the whole point of a headline. I would also like to point out that the headline discussed is very similar to one you published a few days ago “Imenco wins major contract for Type 31 Frigates”. This headline could also be misinterpreted to believe that Imenco has won the contract to build the T31. The point is that anyone who reads just the headline and believes they are informed enough to comment on the issue is not someone who you will ever be able to have an informed debate with. They have read something which agrees with a pre-conceived notion they have and want to comment/publicise the point without actually finding anything out about the subject matter. Please take this response not as a criticism of you or your headlines (I genuinely enjoy your articles) but to point out that other than you using the name of the company and not “French Firm” as was used in the Plymouth Herald you used practically the exact same headline thus I do not think you can complain that their headline “isnt as accurate as it should be…”.

        • I disagree, the contentious issue is where the vessels are being built, not which company is building them.

      • I think that is right. If you look at so called articles about stuff in the media, it is all about misrepresentation. disinformation, lies. All about pushing the gullible and then clicking on adverts. For all I know there are such ‘adverts’ at the bottom of this page now.

      • This is an issue of the modern world and people not having attention spans to read beyond the headlines. Media needs to make money and so makes the head lines sensational to get people to read further. Balanced reporting just doesn’t sell, which is a shame.

      • Hey George. Agree with the desire to have clear headlines ….but let’s be consistent. The following UKDJ headline is open to misinterpretation.

        ‘First delivery for UK Boxer programme’

        Could easily have said ‘First major component delivery……’

        • We have a limited number of characters to work with for a headline, we’ll agree to disagree here as I think that headline is fine.

    • Unfortunately there are too many people who fail to research anything that confirms their beliefs. It is one of the reasons for Brexit… So many untruths peddled as fact for so many years… I know so many people who still believe that the EU banned bent bananas…. Another great lie from our esteemed PM…

    • But, this is “Social Media” mate… It might not be Twatter or Farcebook but It’ entirely in the public domain for all to see and comment.

      • Yeah, fair point, I should have been more specific. I do ‘do’ a few different forums etc but don’t do facebook/twitter/tiktok/grindr etc.

  5. No need to get revved up about stuff like this. It’s fake, we know it is. If some lard arse Daily Mail reader believes it so what?

    • Somehow I doubt most of the ScotNats read the Mail. As for what the issue is, feeding the independence mob fuel to burn is hardly helpful, is it?

  7. Quite a good example for how dangerous the media can be. Likely to have been deliberate by lighting a match and seeing what burns. Seems to be the norm now.

  8. Some idiot on Twitter (@tideyd01) claims that “we had to use French planes to make our aircraft carrier operational”. Rafale landings would be a tad tricky never mind the take-offs.

    • Take offs would not be the issue (although payload would be). But landings would not be possible without arrestor gear.
      FYI the F18 Hornets did some tests last year for the Indian Navy bid, although there was no mention of fuel and weapons payload, which is the real trick.

    • No, they have just elected a Conservative MP. Some would say that it amounts to the same thing. Was it a baboon, and was its arse blue?

  12. I deleted all my social media accounts last year because all they do is try to influence the weak minded people to their liberal views. I don’t miss Twitter, Instagram, ect at all! So much happier now.

  13. I don’t generally get why Thales is part of every major British project along with Leonardo when other British defence companies are left in the cold ? Do the French allow a British subsidy be part of any of their projects ? No No unless they want to extract tech and then leave them in the cold. Many critical former British companies are foreign owned this days. What if France says we will put the plug out on them if the UK complies not? We see Jersey tomorrow it could be the UK

  14. All sorts of interesting comments, as always. Is there any way to be able to tap in to all the “followers” of the idiots who are peddling this story and give the counter argument?
    And here’s a challenge. I am willing to bet that when HMS Glasgow is floated down the Clyde to Scotstoun for fitting out some wag will start a whinge along the lines of “It’s only one frigate and we were promised 13”. Any takers?

    • Ha, well to be fair, the F35 Order has been cut from 138 to 48… the T45 was cut from 12 to 6, T26 was cut from 13 to 8, the Warriors are being cut all together, Wedgetails cut to 3, Sentinal cut to 0, All the current Mine hunters too, Soldiers cut yet again C130’s all gone, Puma’s, Gazelles, Bells also cut to ZERO, Typhoon Tranche 1’s all cut, CH2’s cut too….. bugger me mate, don’t be too cock sure
      😆

      • Good evening Captain P. I was being rather limited in my outlook on the previous post, and rather just focussing on the disinformation that is so easily spread via anti social media. When I was in we had north of 70 escorts of all descriptions, from Type 14’s to DLG’s, and the pongos had 3 divisions in BAOR. And that was just to counter a binary threat. Arguably now the world is a very much more uncertain place with multiple threats, and the Armed Forces are bouncing along on the bones of their collective behinds. ( I would say bones of their arses but the moderator may disagree!)

        • To be fair mate, I share your concerns and some of your memories and experiences too, truth be known……. It’s a far cry from my time but I guess what we do have now is way better, just a shame we have so little.

          • Agreed. How do you make a politician understand that however good the weapon system, be it ship, aircraft or tank, it can still only be in one place at a time.

  16. Fake news the level people go to remember getting up one Saturday morning it was only some weeks after the chemical attack on the UK by MR Putin ediots the BBC news were showing article’s of fake news footage ,and sadly for me the one playing at the time was USSR ships fireing on NATO ships I just FROZE for a min thinking this is it ,my misses walk into the room asking if I wanted breakfast and said what’s up have you seen a ghost 👻then article finished and happy to find out all fake but for a second or two it had me .Can’t unstand what people get out this .😷

  17. George. I replied here and elsewhere. Where they censored or is there a problem with my posts not saving?

  18. There are any number of people that want to be outraged and are probably disapointed that the rumour is not true . These people dont want to read the truth. Its all very tiresome really

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