A counterfactual chain from Beatty's carrier policy to PQ 17

Can Beatty be blamed for PQ 17?

Only through a deliberately extended counterfactual in which different aviation and carrier decisions leave Britain with stronger convoy protection.

The running joke about blaming Beatty becomes a conditional argument about naval aviation. Keeping the Fleet Air Arm under naval control and securing more carrier tonnage would, in this argument, have increased the available air power. Admiral-class conversions are imagined as more survivable carriers than Courageous and Glorious. Their survival could then have reduced other naval losses and left heavier escort forces available for PQ 17. Each step depends on an alternative outcome, so the argument remains a counterfactual.