COMMONSENSE prevailed in the christening of the Government’s new £200 million polar research ship.

A hundred thousand social media users voted to call it “Boaty McBoatface” but instead the authorities for once failed to bow to public pressure and opted instead for RRS Sir David Attenborough to honour one of our greatest broadcasters and naturalists. The ship’s remote-controlled yellow sub gets the joke name instead.

I’m not sure what surprised me most: the decision to laud one of our most respected figures or the actual cost of such an obscure vessel and whether, during recessionary times, we really need it.