The Navy League turned shipbuilding into mass politics

Was 'We want eight and we won't wait' a real British naval campaign?

Yes; it was a real slogan promoted in an era when the Navy League was a powerful pressure group.

The slogan came from an organized public campaign rather than later legend. The Navy League could place sustained pressure on government decisions about fleet size. Its public influence is compared with the strongest modern lobbying or campaigning organizations. Dreadnought procurement became a question of electoral and civic mobilization as well as Admiralty planning.