Astute gift for Queen on visit to city Naval Base

THE Queen received a birthday gift that helped keep a nuclear-powered submarine at sea when all else failed, clingfilm.

- By TONY JONES

Camilla's 78th birthday, celebrated on Thursday, was marked with the presentation of a clingfilm holder from Commander Chris Bate whose crew used the household item to fix a defect in the main engines of his submarine HMS Astute.

"There's nothing more useful, brilliant how wonderful," said the royal guest about the present which had a small plaque with the words "Clingflim keeping nuclear submarines at sea".