"But I would like to be one of the first to offer tangible support to the concept, by offering up to £5m towards the construction costs of building a new, effective and flexible royal yacht."
The proposed vessel – 650ft long and as tall as St Paul's Cathedral – would provide education and vocational training for young people, facilities for scientific research, and a venue for trade missions and commercial exhibitions as well as staterooms for the use of the Royal Family on trips around the United Kingdom and overseas.
There are two things worth pointing out in this:
- "£5m towards the construction costs". This yacht might be privately financed, but no-one is saying anything at this point about who's going to pay to run it.
- and a venue for trade missions and commercial exhibitions
As a reasonably sane man, who has met sane businessmen, none of them is so soft-hearted as to just throw a large amount of money at something as obviously childish as the monarchy. So the reasons are less obvious - the project is an investment in a facility by these people. Spend a few million up front, then the taxpayer funds Brenda travelling around the world, then you get to use it to entertain your foreign clients when they're in port. Large upfront costs, but will soon pay for itself.
