The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun. Ecclesiastes 1:9 KJV In December last year, KPMG delivered to the Department for Transport the report the ministry had commissioned on the future of the UK Ship Register. In brief KPMG recommended a “part-privatisation” of the Register by spinning it out into a “Govco”, i.e. a privately held state-owned company which though subject