More news for anyone who took the bet on the Dawlish railway line re-opening by the end of March. Network Rail have now brought forward the estimated opening date to Friday 4th April - crucially in time for the Easter holidays - which is near enough to the end of March that they might just still make it.
Isn’t Network Rail effectively a nationalised organisation? Just asking
Yes, but most of the work is done by private contractors, so it exists squarely in that mushy grey area that politicians pretend doesn't exist.
It isn't a problem that the countryside doesn't really have much money. The problem is that those living in the countryside expect to be subsidised for their lifestyle choices off the back of those of us who live in large cities living much greener, much more economically productive lives.
I think we get the message that you don't rate countryside living much.
Quite the opposite. I rate it highly. But I don't see why I should pay for other people to enjoy it.
The UK would be a dismal place if no one lived outside our major conurbations.
It would be useful if we could see the figures for the 14 by-elections which are counted if one excludes Bradford West as an outlier, and/or if they are sub-divided into the 3 where the Lib Dems had substantial votes and the 12 where they didn't.
Which is the 3rd Lib Dem strong showing? (OE & Saddle, Eastleigh, and ?)
I was thinking of Leicester South. The Lib Dem vote went down from 27% to 23% and stayed in 2nd place, without collapsing (like it did in Barnsley Central, for example).
On a quick calculation - looking at all the by-elections (ex. the NI ones) - in the 3 'Good' LD seats (OE and S, Leics Sth, and Eastleigh) the %vote fell from 35.6% to 29.08% (so -6.5%). In the 12 'bad' LD seats their %Vote fell from 17% to 5.2% (so -11.8%)
More than 20 councils have used or plan to use controversial lie detector tests to catch fraudulent benefits claimants, despite the government dropping the technology because it was found to be not sufficiently reliable.
Responding to freedom of information (FOI) requests, 24 local authorities confirmed they had employed or were considering the use of "voice risk analysis" (VRA) software, which its makers say can pick out fraudulent claimants by listening in on calls and identifying signs of stress.
Although in 2010 the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) announced it had given up VRA software, the FOI responses show councils have been spending, in some cases, millions of pounds on the technology.
Sounds like aviation expert David Learmount believes something like Air France 447 could have happened to the missing Malaysian Airlines flight, ie. the pilots weren't able to cope with the auto-pilot shutting down.
More news for anyone who took the bet on the Dawlish railway line re-opening by the end of March. Network Rail have now brought forward the estimated opening date to Friday 4th April - crucially in time for the Easter holidays - which is near enough to the end of March that they might just still make it.
Isn’t Network Rail effectively a nationalised organisation? Just asking
Yes, but most of the work is done by private contractors, so it exists squarely in that mushy grey area that politicians pretend doesn't exist.
Why do you ask?
"most of the work is done by private contractors,"
Really? Much of the new work, or work on lines closed to traffic (e.g. track renewals), is done by private contractors (for instance you see a lot of Balfour Beattie bods around), but an awful lot of maintenance is done in-house by NR track and s&t people. I'd be interested to see a breakdown between the work done by NR and that by contractors.
NR got its finger burnt when Jarvis failed. The company had been going since 1846 before it failed in 2010.
Mr. 565, absolute tosh. England's one land. Yorkshire isn't more like Scotland than it is Devon (a lovely part of the world).
Mr. Eagles, you've been corrupted by the foul vapours of Mordor's swamps.
Have you read early Neal Stephenson, Snow Crash and The Diamond Age? I much prefer their idea of distributed nations to our current system.
You can prefer imagined realities all you want, but most of us prefer to deal with reality as we find it. The nation that most English feel part of is the English one, with the British nation as the runner up.
It looks as if the (Conservative) MPs will all be giving hearsay evidence about alleged complaints made to them about Nigel Evans' conduct.
The Mail report sounds like it's Mr Evans public behaviour which MPs might have witnessed.
"The prosecution case against Mr Evans is that he, often when in drink, pressed his sexual attentions on those younger men, using or trading on his position of influence.
'Now this behaviour did not happen once but has been repeated over time and despite repeated warnings given to him by others.
'It has also escalated in seriousness, no doubt because he believed that his position made it less than likely that someone would complain.'
Mr Heywood continued: 'The prosecution alleges that he, on separate occasions over many years, has sexually assaulted young men, both in public situations and in private. 'By the last of the these, in early 2013, he raped one of the young men"
Sounds like aviation expert David Learmount believes something like Air France 447 could have happened to the missing Malaysian Airlines flight, ie. the pilots weren't able to cope with the auto-pilot shutting down.
Could it be possible that they didn't have any indication the plane was going down, until it was too late. Saying that, why would it suddenly disappear of radar, doesn't that imply it didn't gradually descend?
It isn't a problem that the countryside doesn't really have much money. The problem is that those living in the countryside expect to be subsidised for their lifestyle choices off the back of those of us who live in large cities living much greener, much more economically productive lives.
I think we get the message that you don't rate countryside living much.
Quite the opposite. I rate it highly. But I don't see why I should pay for other people to enjoy it.
The UK would be a dismal place if no one lived outside our major conurbations.
Agreed, but that doesn't mean people should be subsidized to do it.
There had better not be one English Parliament, dominated by southern interests. It should be broken up into English regions. Northern England has more in common politically with Scotland and Wales than it does with southern England (not purely in terms of tribal Labour/Tory terms--there's more of a genuine sense of solidarity up here, more tolerance of poor people or benefit-claimants, and more of an indifference to squeals about it being so dangerous to upset businesses or "the markets"), so it would be very perverse for us to be bundled up with them.
If Scotland votes No, there'll need to be a proper constitutional convention. If a settlement is imposed by one party or another it will just be changed when governments change. But there is no ducking the fact there has to be significant reform. Devomax for Scotland means devomax for the rest of the UK too, so we probably are looking at some kind of federal resolution with only issues like defence, foreign policy and social security reserved for Westminster.
I'm in favour of devolution for England, but my point is I want it to be devolved to English regions. One unitary English Parliament would mean southerners could trample over northerners even more than they currently do -- a disaster.
I'm pretty sure an economy run along northern thinking was tried in the 1970s and that truly did end in disaster.
Adults from ethnic minority backgrounds are more likely to be educated to a high standard than their white British peers, according to research.
Figures show they are significantly more likely to hold a degree and less likely to have no qualifications at all than their white counterparts.
People from the best-qualified group – Chinese – were around 75 per cent more likely to be university educated than those identified as white British.
The study by Manchester University also found that many ethnic minorities had seen bigger overall improvements in education standards over the last 20 years.
It isn't a problem that the countryside doesn't really have much money. The problem is that those living in the countryside expect to be subsidised for their lifestyle choices off the back of those of us who live in large cities living much greener, much more economically productive lives.
I think we get the message that you don't rate countryside living much.
Quite the opposite. I rate it highly. But I don't see why I should pay for other people to enjoy it.
The UK would be a dismal place if no one lived outside our major conurbations.
Agreed, but that doesn't mean people should be subsidized to do it.
There had better not be one English Parliament, dominated by southern interests. It should be broken up into English regions. Northern England has more in common politically with Scotland and Wales than it does with southern England (not purely in terms of tribal Labour/Tory terms--there's more of a genuine sense of solidarity up here, more tolerance of poor people or benefit-claimants, and more of an indifference to squeals about it being so dangerous to upset businesses or "the markets"), so it would be very perverse for us to be bundled up with them.
If Scotland votes No, there'll need to be a proper constitutional convention. If a settlement is imposed by one party or another it will just be changed when governments change. But there is no ducking the fact there has to be significant reform. Devomax for Scotland means devomax for the rest of the UK too, so we probably are looking at some kind of federal resolution with only issues like defence, foreign policy and social security reserved for Westminster.
I'm in favour of devolution for England, but my point is I want it to be devolved to English regions. One unitary English Parliament would mean southerners could trample over northerners even more than they currently do -- a disaster.
I'm pretty sure an economy run along northern thinking was tried in the 1970s and that truly did end in disaster.
Short of people paying individually for public services, I'm not sure one avoids subsidising other people or districts. London, the South and East Anglia subsidise everywhere else.
Short of people paying individually for public services, I'm not sure one avoids subsidising other people or districts. London, the South and East Anglia subsidise everywhere else.
Things like Royal Mail's universal service obligation, or the government paying for broadband rollout in places where it isn't privately tenable, are pretty clear cases of urban people subsidising rural people.
Ethnic minorities in the UK are bound to be, almost by definition, more intelligent and hardworking than the native population, simply because in order to make the move from another country is something that 90% of people (anywhere) don't have the wit and stamina to accomplish. This won't be true in all cases of course but it's right in general.
Adults from ethnic minority backgrounds are more likely to be educated to a high standard than their white British peers, according to research.
Figures show they are significantly more likely to hold a degree and less likely to have no qualifications at all than their white counterparts.
People from the best-qualified group – Chinese – were around 75 per cent more likely to be university educated than those identified as white British.
The study by Manchester University also found that many ethnic minorities had seen bigger overall improvements in education standards over the last 20 years.
I see they headline on white British people doing worse, but they're not actually bottom of the pack:
"People from the white gypsy or Irish traveller, Pakistani, Bangladeshi and white and black Caribbean groups were less likely than white British people to have degree level qualifications or equivalent."
Ethnic minorities in the UK are bound to be, almost by definition, more intelligent and hardworking than the native population, simply because in order to make the move from another country is something that 90% of people (anywhere) don't have the wit and stamina to accomplish. This won't be true in all cases of course but it's right in general.
What about those ethnic minorities who were born here?
This sort of debate is precisely why regional assemblies would be appalling. We'd have the south complaining about giving away too much money to subsidise the unprofitable north, and the north complaining about not getting their fair share. It would become a self-fulfilling prophecy of fragmentation, a needless splintering of England.
Worst yet, it would mean, should England ever become a nation unto itself, we'd be lumbered with petty regional assemblies. What we need is a Parliament.
Sounds like aviation expert David Learmount believes something like Air France 447 could have happened to the missing Malaysian Airlines flight, ie. the pilots weren't able to cope with the auto-pilot shutting down.
Could it be possible that they didn't have any indication the plane was going down, until it was too late. Saying that, why would it suddenly disappear of radar, doesn't that imply it didn't gradually descend?
That's exactly what happened with Air France flight 447. The pilots didn't have any idea they were going to hit the water until about 45 seconds before it crashed. Everything went wrong in the last five minutes and they didn't have time to send a distress signal.
They knew they were in trouble during those last minutes, but they thought they were flying too high and fast, when in fact the problem was precisely the opposite:
Mr. 565, absolute tosh. England's one land. Yorkshire isn't more like Scotland than it is Devon (a lovely part of the world).
Mr. Eagles, you've been corrupted by the foul vapours of Mordor's swamps.
Have you read early Neal Stephenson, Snow Crash and The Diamond Age? I much prefer their idea of distributed nations to our current system.
Both brilliant books, especially Snow crash. The first 100 pages of that are arguably the best Sci-Fi I have ever read.
Indeed. Every time I use Google Earth I think of the "You Are Here" app in Snow Crash (in the book, it was the most expensive app in the world, providing the overhead images in real time).
"Though this is good news for ethnic minorities, we need to remember that despite achievement gaps between some ethnic groups and white British people narrowing or even disappearing, ethnic minority groups continue to experience inequalities in education and the labour market."
This is the sort of stupid conclusion you get from combining the ethnic Chinese with Irish travellers. The high skilled groups don't have inequalities in education and the labour market. The low skilled groups do.
Throughout history what we've seen is that people from all around the world, inter alia, the Danes, Septimius Severus, people from the Indian Sub-continent have all moved to live and work in Yorkshire.
All because they've heard about Yorkshire's brilliance and beauty.
Ethnic minorities in the UK are bound to be, almost by definition, more intelligent and hardworking than the native population, simply because in order to make the move from another country is something that 90% of people (anywhere) don't have the wit and stamina to accomplish. This won't be true in all cases of course but it's right in general.
What about those ethnic minorities who were born here?
According to books like The Triple Package (which I've been reading), each generation becomes more like the native population, which stands to reason.
Sounds like aviation expert David Learmount believes something like Air France 447 could have happened to the missing Malaysian Airlines flight, ie. the pilots weren't able to cope with the auto-pilot shutting down.
Could it be possible that they didn't have any indication the plane was going down, until it was too late. Saying that, why would it suddenly disappear of radar, doesn't that imply it didn't gradually descend?
That's exactly what happened with Air France flight 447. The pilots didn't have any idea they were going to hit the water until about 45 seconds before it crashed. Everything went wrong in the last five minutes and they didn't have time to send a distress signal.
They knew they were in trouble during those last minutes, but they thought they were flying too high and fast, when in fact the problem was precisely the opposite:
Adults from ethnic minority backgrounds are more likely to be educated to a high standard than their white British peers, according to research.
Figures show they are significantly more likely to hold a degree and less likely to have no qualifications at all than their white counterparts.
People from the best-qualified group – Chinese – were around 75 per cent more likely to be university educated than those identified as white British.
The study by Manchester University also found that many ethnic minorities had seen bigger overall improvements in education standards over the last 20 years.
I see they headline on white British people doing worse, but they're not actually bottom of the pack:
"People from the white gypsy or Irish traveller, Pakistani, Bangladeshi and white and black Caribbean groups were less likely than white British people to have degree level qualifications or equivalent."
And, not very surprisingly, the latter groups tend to have lower than average rates of employment, while the ethnic minority groups that excel tend to have higher than average rates of employment.
Sounds like aviation expert David Learmount believes something like Air France 447 could have happened to the missing Malaysian Airlines flight, ie. the pilots weren't able to cope with the auto-pilot shutting down.
Could it be possible that they didn't have any indication the plane was going down, until it was too late. Saying that, why would it suddenly disappear of radar, doesn't that imply it didn't gradually descend?
Rob
I have been browsing the PPRuNe blogsite. The thread on MH370 seemed though to be growing faster than I was reading it, so, in the end, I just dipped in.
I did see a good post on radar capability. Apparently civil radar systems operating in the area at the time would not have been able to detect a plane flying below 30,000 ft . This accounts for the altitude reading of 0 ft on some of the tracking reports. The zero is this case should apparently be interpreted as "below 30,000 ft and undetected by radar".
There was also some informed discussion about military radar systems which are designed to detect at lower altitudes. Apparently the difficulty here is that these systems filter out known commercial aircraft as the interest is only in "exception management".
The poster suggested that the raw data input into the military systems and filtered out by the software may (after weeding to remove any secret data unrelated to the airline crash) be able to offer some clues as to what happened to MH370 below 30,000 feet.
Adults from ethnic minority backgrounds are more likely to be educated to a high standard than their white British peers, according to research.
Figures show they are significantly more likely to hold a degree and less likely to have no qualifications at all than their white counterparts.
People from the best-qualified group – Chinese – were around 75 per cent more likely to be university educated than those identified as white British.
The study by Manchester University also found that many ethnic minorities had seen bigger overall improvements in education standards over the last 20 years.
I see they headline on white British people doing worse, but they're not actually bottom of the pack:
"People from the white gypsy or Irish traveller, Pakistani, Bangladeshi and white and black Caribbean groups were less likely than white British people to have degree level qualifications or equivalent."
And, not very surprisingly, the latter groups tend to have lower than average rates of employment, while the ethnic minority groups that excel tend to have higher than average rates of employment.
Indeed. I can't work out whether it's incompetence on behalf of the study's authors, or whether they're being deliberately misleading to spread a political message.
Mr. 565, absolute tosh. England's one land. Yorkshire isn't more like Scotland than it is Devon (a lovely part of the world).
Mr. Eagles, you've been corrupted by the foul vapours of Mordor's swamps.
Have you read early Neal Stephenson, Snow Crash and The Diamond Age? I much prefer their idea of distributed nations to our current system.
Both brilliant books, especially Snow crash. The first 100 pages of that are arguably the best Sci-Fi I have ever read.
Indeed. Every time I use Google Earth I think of the "You Are Here" app in Snow Crash (in the book, it was the most expensive app in the world, providing the overhead images in real time).
It is claimed (by Wiki amongst others) that the designers of Google earth were inspired by the book. It also at least popularised the word avatar.
As well as being extremely funny it is one of those books that you keep looking at its publication date in amazement. We recently "celebrated" the 25th anniversary of the internet. The book was published in 1992. Just an incredible vision of how things might develop.
The second half is more complex and frankly confusing in places but the futurescape is just awe inspiring.
Mr. Eagles, that's an odd pair to get confused, although they do share a Yorkshire connection.
I know, I know, I'm multitasking, pressing f5 on the Guardian website, thinking about Eva Green and working.
RE Wigan Pier.... despite his major fault line in being a lefty, Tony Robinson has been doing a series of canal walks and I watched one last night that terminated at Wigan Pier. V interesting they are too.
This new revelation in this Jenkins biography comes across as an incredible and intensely romantic love triangle, especially with the back drop of 1930's Oxford/Cambridge politics in the lead up to and during WW2. Throw in the later post war historical Westminster politics of the high profile figures involved, and I suspect that this love story could well make its way onto our TV screens as a BBC drama at some point in the future.
Roy Jenkins' male lover Tony Crosland tried to halt his marriage
A new biography, Roy Jenkins: A Well Rounded Life, by John Campbell, reveals how miner’s son Jenkins himself had a homosexual affair with his close friend Crosland who he met at Oxford University
Ethnic minorities in the UK are bound to be, almost by definition, more intelligent and hardworking than the native population, simply because in order to make the move from another country is something that 90% of people (anywhere) don't have the wit and stamina to accomplish. This won't be true in all cases of course but it's right in general.
Sounds like aviation expert David Learmount believes something like Air France 447 could have happened to the missing Malaysian Airlines flight, ie. the pilots weren't able to cope with the auto-pilot shutting down.
Could it be possible that they didn't have any indication the plane was going down, until it was too late. Saying that, why would it suddenly disappear of radar, doesn't that imply it didn't gradually descend?
A clarification might be needed. AIUI, most planes on long flights (especially transoceanic) are not under civilian radar air traffic control because radars are limited by distance. There are two types of radar: the signal-return system we all know and love (primary), and the interrogation-response (secondary), which can give ATC much more information.
Civilian ATC mostly use secondary radar. The radar send a signal to the aircraft's transponder (transmitter/responder), which responds with data including its code (essentially an ID). Again, this only works within radar range.
Therefore 'suddenly disappearing off radar'; would occur if it went outside range (as seems to be the case here), or below line-of-sight of the ATC radar. If the plane has gone out of range of the radars, then it becomes very hard to discover where it went down.
Transponders are a variant of the military Identify-Friend-Foe system, and amongst other things allows air-traffic controllers to tell which flight is which, and their altitude. This means it is perfectly possible to 'disappear' off an ATC secondary radar simply by turning off the transponder, or in some cases by setting the transponder to the incorrect mode.
In addition, the ACARS system can be used to send short messages on the plane's status via a separate radio system. This proved useful in diagnosing what happened to AF flight 447. Position can also be sent by other means to allow tracking, but AFAICR that is not obligatory, and dependent on individual airlines.
The militaries of the respective countries use primary radar extensively. They have probably played back their radar logs to see if they picked up anything.
Mostly from memory. I daresay someone will be along soon to correct me if any of that is wrong or oversimplified. ;-)
Mike, it' not even remotely surprising that UKIP comes in 4th on aggregate. The party wasn't anything special in 2011 or indeed most of 2012. The watershed moment when UKIP really started to breakout was, as you know, the Rotherham Foster Scandal. 9 of the 15 by-elections happened BEFORE this story broke.
I think you'll see a massive divergence between the party's performances before and after that event.
Mr. Eagles, that's an odd pair to get confused, although they do share a Yorkshire connection.
I know, I know, I'm multitasking, pressing f5 on the Guardian website, thinking about Eva Green and working.
RE Wigan Pier.... despite his major fault line in being a lefty, Tony Robinson has been doing a series of canal walks and I watched one last night that terminated at Wigan Pier. V interesting they are too.
I watched his one about St. Cuthbert, but not sure it was along a canal...
Mr. 565, absolute tosh. England's one land. Yorkshire isn't more like Scotland than it is Devon (a lovely part of the world).
Mr. Eagles, you've been corrupted by the foul vapours of Mordor's swamps.
Have you read early Neal Stephenson, Snow Crash and The Diamond Age? I much prefer their idea of distributed nations to our current system.
Both brilliant books, especially Snow crash. The first 100 pages of that are arguably the best Sci-Fi I have ever read.
Indeed. Every time I use Google Earth I think of the "You Are Here" app in Snow Crash (in the book, it was the most expensive app in the world, providing the overhead images in real time).
It is claimed (by Wiki amongst others) that the designers of Google earth were inspired by the book. It also at least popularised the word avatar.
As well as being extremely funny it is one of those books that you keep looking at its publication date in amazement. We recently "celebrated" the 25th anniversary of the internet. The book was published in 1992. Just an incredible vision of how things might develop.
The second half is more complex and frankly confusing in places but the futurescape is just awe inspiring.
Well I didn't know that! I wanted one of those skateboards with SmartWheels(TM) for years
Janan Ganesh has issued a rather more effective (though possibly less stylish) demolition of the New York Times's assault on London than SeanT. Here's the finale:
"The idea that London was a fortress of gentlemanly values until a moral fall that occurred at some indistinct time around the millennium is ahistorical. It has always been open to the point of nihilism, hosting even troublemakers and scoundrels, some rich, some not. If that is lamentable, it was worth lamenting 30, 50 or 100 years ago. It should not be shown as a particular quirk of our age in frothy works of zeitgeist journalism.
Neither should we pretend that London’s hospitability to globalisation does nothing for ordinary Londoners. Foreign investment and contributions from the City (which, given the internationalism of that financial centre, amounts to the same thing) are helping to pay for London’s most extensive makeover since at least the docklands revival of the 1980s, which itself had foreign help. Areas that used to serve as bywords for dilapidation – King’s Cross, Battersea power station, Elephant and Castle – are the subjects of lavish regeneration. The colossal Tate Modern, the world’s most-visited modern art gallery, is getting even bigger to meet demand. Taking shape underground is Crossrail, the biggest construction project in Europe. This great fury of building – London is now a city of cranes and giant drilling machines – would not happen in a city that turned away from globalisation.
Critics say London is an unequal city as though Paris, Moscow and New York are not. They lament the price of property as though Hong Kong and Tokyo are famous for their affordable town houses. London suffers all the pathologies of a city of its size and importance.
There was a time when London really was depopulating year on year, when infrastructure decayed, when whole parts of town were left to fester without even a plan for revival. These were the decades before the 1980s, a period romanticised by those down on the London of Abramovich. It is now a city of ever more people, of endless construction, of falling crime and improving schools – a magnet to Europe’s young.
Londoners appreciate the anguish shown on their behalf by the foreign media. But, really, we are coping."
It isn't a problem that the countryside doesn't really have much money. The problem is that those living in the countryside expect to be subsidised for their lifestyle choices off the back of those of us who live in large cities living much greener, much more economically productive lives.
I think we get the message that you don't rate countryside living much.
Quite the opposite. I rate it highly. But I don't see why I should pay for other people to enjoy it.
The UK would be a dismal place if no one lived outside our major conurbations.
Agreed, but that doesn't mean people should be subsidized to do it.
There had better not be one English Parliament, dominated by southern interests. It should be broken up into English regions. Northern England has more in common politically with Scotland and Wales than it does with southern England (not purely in terms of tribal Labour/Tory terms--there's more of a genuine sense of solidarity up here, more tolerance of poor people or benefit-claimants, and more of an indifference to squeals about it being so dangerous to upset businesses or "the markets"), so it would be very perverse for us to be bundled up with them.
If Scotland votes No, there'll need to be a proper constitutional convention. If a settlement is imposed by one party or another it will just be changed when governments change. But there is no ducking the fact there has to be significant reform. Devomax for Scotland means devomax for the rest of the UK too, so we probably are looking at some kind of federal resolution with only issues like defence, foreign policy and social security reserved for Westminster.
I'm in favour of devolution for England, but my point is I want it to be devolved to English regions. One unitary English Parliament would mean southerners could trample over northerners even more than they currently do -- a disaster.
I'm pretty sure an economy run along northern thinking was tried in the 1970s and that truly did end in disaster.
And an economy run along southern thinking was tried between the 1980s and 2008, and that ended in an even bigger disaster.
That was a good demolition of many of the sillier points of the NYT article. It did not, however, address the point that the morality of the UK's foreign policy was being downgraded behind London's courting of dirty Russian money.
Thatcher in the 1980s stood up for the oppressed nations of Eastern Europe. Cameron doesn't deserve to fill her shoes based on his courting of foreign oligarchs over the well-being of Ukraine.
Janan Ganesh has issued a rather more effective (though possibly less stylish) demolition of the New York Times's assault on London than SeanT. Here's the finale:
"The idea that London was a fortress of gentlemanly values until a moral fall that occurred at some indistinct time around the millennium is ahistorical. It has always been open to the point of nihilism, hosting even troublemakers and scoundrels, some rich, some not. If that is lamentable, it was worth lamenting 30, 50 or 100 years ago. It should not be shown as a particular quirk of our age in frothy works of zeitgeist journalism.
Neither should we pretend that London’s hospitability to globalisation does nothing for ordinary Londoners. Foreign investment and contributions from the City (which, given the internationalism of that financial centre, amounts to the same thing) are helping to pay for London’s most extensive makeover since at least the docklands revival of the 1980s, which itself had foreign help. Areas that used to serve as bywords for dilapidation – King’s Cross, Battersea power station, Elephant and Castle – are the subjects of lavish regeneration. The colossal Tate Modern, the world’s most-visited modern art gallery, is getting even bigger to meet demand. Taking shape underground is Crossrail, the biggest construction project in Europe. This great fury of building – London is now a city of cranes and giant drilling machines – would not happen in a city that turned away from globalisation.
Critics say London is an unequal city as though Paris, Moscow and New York are not. They lament the price of property as though Hong Kong and Tokyo are famous for their affordable town houses. London suffers all the pathologies of a city of its size and importance.
There was a time when London really was depopulating year on year, when infrastructure decayed, when whole parts of town were left to fester without even a plan for revival. These were the decades before the 1980s, a period romanticised by those down on the London of Abramovich. It is now a city of ever more people, of endless construction, of falling crime and improving schools – a magnet to Europe’s young.
Londoners appreciate the anguish shown on their behalf by the foreign media. But, really, we are coping."
The Docklands regeneration was Heseltine's baby via the LDDC. We've got so much to thank him for, yet he gets f'all recognition.
The Docklands will remain a massive centre in 100 years. What will New Labour have to show for their wasted 13 years?
Mr. Carnyx, you may have missed earlier relevant posts. Mr. 565 is banging on about running the economy the 'northern' [English] way. He said (I paraphrase) we tried it the 'southern' way from about 1980 to 2008. I pointed out the Labour Chancellors were not only not from the south of England, they were not even from England.
Janan Ganesh has issued a rather more effective (though possibly less stylish) demolition of the New York Times's assault on London than SeanT. Here's the finale:
"The idea that London was a fortress of gentlemanly values until a moral fall that occurred at some indistinct time around the millennium is ahistorical. It has always been open to the point of nihilism, hosting even troublemakers and scoundrels, some rich, some not. If that is lamentable, it was worth lamenting 30, 50 or 100 years ago. It should not be shown as a particular quirk of our age in frothy works of zeitgeist journalism.
Neither should we pretend that London’s hospitability to globalisation does nothing for ordinary Londoners. Foreign investment and contributions from the City (which, given the internationalism of that financial centre, amounts to the same thing) are helping to pay for London’s most extensive makeover since at least the docklands revival of the 1980s, which itself had foreign help. Areas that used to serve as bywords for dilapidation – King’s Cross, Battersea power station, Elephant and Castle – are the subjects of lavish regeneration. The colossal Tate Modern, the world’s most-visited modern art gallery, is getting even bigger to meet demand. Taking shape underground is Crossrail, the biggest construction project in Europe. This great fury of building – London is now a city of cranes and giant drilling machines – would not happen in a city that turned away from globalisation.
Critics say London is an unequal city as though Paris, Moscow and New York are not. They lament the price of property as though Hong Kong and Tokyo are famous for their affordable town houses. London suffers all the pathologies of a city of its size and importance.
There was a time when London really was depopulating year on year, when infrastructure decayed, when whole parts of town were left to fester without even a plan for revival. These were the decades before the 1980s, a period romanticised by those down on the London of Abramovich. It is now a city of ever more people, of endless construction, of falling crime and improving schools – a magnet to Europe’s young.
Londoners appreciate the anguish shown on their behalf by the foreign media. But, really, we are coping."
The Docklands regeneration was Heseltine's baby via the LDDC. We've got so much to thank him for, yet he gets f'all recognition.
The Docklands will remain a massive centre in 100 years. What will New Labour have to show for their wasted 13 years?
The Docklands regeneration was Heseltine's baby via the LDDC. We've got so much to thank him for, yet he gets f'all recognition.
The Docklands will remain a massive centre in 100 years. What will New Labour have to show for their wasted 13 years?
And the 2012 Olympics. Yet people say that HS2 is an expensive waste of money ...
Some Labourites claim the Thatcher government tried to destroy communities. So let's compare it with what followed. Despite a massive change in industries, the Conservative governments tried revitalisting local areas with the flower festivals and brought in new industries, for instance Toyota, Honda and Nissan. All of which, you note, are away from the southeast.
Labour destroyed communities through the hideous, sickening, un-green and barmy Pathfinder project, and let Rover go to the wall.
It isn't a problem that the countryside doesn't really have much money. The problem is that those living in the countryside expect to be subsidised for their lifestyle choices off the back of those of us who live in large cities living much greener, much more economically productive lives.
I think we get the message that you don't rate countryside living much.
Quite the opposite. I rate it highly. But I don't see why I should pay for other people to enjoy it.
The UK would be a dismal place if no one lived outside our major conurbations.
Agreed, but that doesn't mean people should be subsidized to do it.
There had better not be one English Parliament, dominated by southern interests. It should be broken up into English regions. Northern England has more in common politically with Scotland and Wales than it does with southern England (not purely in terms of tribal Labour/Tory terms--there's more of a genuine sense of solidarity up here, more tolerance of poor people or benefit-claimants, and more of an indifference to squeals about it being so dangerous to upset businesses or "the markets"), so it would be very perverse for us to be bundled up with them.
If Scotland votes No, there'll need to be a proper constitutional convention. If a settlement is imposed by one party or another it will just be changed when governments change. But there is no ducking the fact there has to be significant reform. Devomax for Scotland means devomax for the rest of the UK too, so we probably are looking at some kind of federal resolution with only issues like defence, foreign policy and social security reserved for Westminster.
I'm in favour of devolution for England, but my point is I want it to be devolved to English regions. One unitary English Parliament would mean southerners could trample over northerners even more than they currently do -- a disaster.
I'm pretty sure an economy run along northern thinking was tried in the 1970s and that truly did end in disaster.
And an economy run along southern thinking was tried between the 1980s and 2008, and that ended in an even bigger disaster.
Firstly, people are clearly a lot better off now, even after the crash, than they were in the 1970s. Secondly, the debt-filled binge of the last 15 years was a Labour thing. Thirdly, the reason why it's been so hard to recover is because the single currency has screwed over half our export markets.
That was a good demolition of many of the sillier points of the NYT article. It did not, however, address the point that the morality of the UK's foreign policy was being downgraded behind London's courting of dirty Russian money.
Thatcher in the 1980s stood up for the oppressed nations of Eastern Europe. Cameron doesn't deserve to fill her shoes based on his courting of foreign oligarchs over the well-being of Ukraine.
Socrates
Your persistent line that the Maidan protestors and Ukrainian nationalists are a group of oppressed, freedom loving, democratic, western thinking, oligarch and corruption free saints is naive.
So too is your line that the Russians, whether in Moscow or in the Eastern and Southern Regions of the Ukraine, are totalitarian oppressors with diametrically opposite attributes.
Thatcher may well have taken a public line in the 1980s opposed to communist government in Eastern Europe, but it should be remembered that the abandonment of communism and breakup of the Soviet Union and Warsaw Pact counties between 1989 and 1991 resulted far more from internal combustion than external pressure. It was Gorbachev recognising the need to reform communism if it was to survive that led to partial reforms which were then extended in the nationalism cause to full abandonment. It was the Russian Federation which overthrew the USSR, not a Reagan-Thatcher moral crusade..
Undoubtedly Russia has greater economic, military and political power than rump Ukraine, but it also has a relatively less corrupt governance and economy and is the government favoured by large swathes of the population in the more prosperous areas of the Ukraine.
Does London show greater moral integrity by courting the money of Ukrainian rather than Russian oligarchs? Is the well-being of the Ukraine better served by allowing it to become a geo-political battlefield between the EU and Russia?
The solution to the current crisis lies in politicians on all sides moving away from extreme and simplistic interpretations of a very complex situation.
Firstly, people are clearly a lot better off now, even after the crash, than they were in the 1970s. Secondly, the debt-filled binge of the last 15 years was a Labour thing. Thirdly, the reason why it's been so hard to recover is because the single currency has screwed over half our export markets.
I think there is another longer-term point - that British exports have been getting narrower and narrower over time.
If you go back to - say - 1970, we exported a wide range of things, from machinery to cars to electronics to services.
Now, if you look at where Britain is world leading, we have a great position in specialist engineering, but it's a tiny portion of exports, likewise in semiconductor design.
We are very dependent on the export of services, and I think that is slightly dangerous.
Re exports, while the weakness of the Eurozone has been a factor, it's worth noting that despite a massive devaluation post GFC, 13 of the 15 Eurozone countries have beaten us in terms of change of absolute value of exports, so that cannot be the dominant factor.
The most interesting news to surface in the last few hours is that the two tickets purchased In Pattaya by travellers using false passports were issued on the instructions and payment of a Teheran travel agent.
It may mean nothing. But it certainly needs urgent investigation.
It isn't a problem that the countryside doesn't really have much money. The problem is that those living in the countryside expect to be subsidised for their lifestyle choices off the back of those of us who live in large cities living much greener, much more economically productive lives.
I think we get the message that you don't rate countryside living much.
Quite the opposite. I rate it highly. But I don't see why I should pay for other people to enjoy it.
The UK would be a dismal place if no one lived outside our major conurbations.
Agreed, but that doesn't mean people should be subsidized to do it.
There had better not be one English Parliament, dominated by southern interests. It should be broken up into English regions. Northern England has more in common politically with Scotland and Wales than it does with southern England (not purely in terms of tribal Labour/Tory terms--there's more of a genuine sense of solidarity up here, more tolerance of poor people or benefit-claimants, and more of an indifference to squeals about it being so dangerous to upset businesses or "the markets"), so it would be very perverse for us to be bundled up with them.
If Scotland votes No, there'll need to be a proper constitutional convention. If a settlement is imposed by one party or another it will just be changed when governments change. But there is no ducking the fact there has to be significant reform. Devomax for Scotland means devomax for the rest of the UK too, so we probably are looking at some kind of federal resolution with only issues like defence, foreign policy and social security reserved for Westminster.
I'm in favour of devolution for England, but my point is I want it to be devolved to English regions. One unitary English Parliament would mean southerners could trample over northerners even more than they currently do -- a disaster.
I'm pretty sure an economy run along northern thinking was tried in the 1970s and that truly did end in disaster.
And an economy run along southern thinking was tried between the 1980s and 2008, and that ended in an even bigger disaster.
The institutions that blew up the UK economy were:
Northern Rock - NE England, retail banking Halifax Bank of Scotland - Scotland, NW England, retail banking Royal Bank of Scotland - Scotland, retail banking
So, remind me how the South of England blew up the economy, again?
The most interesting news to surface in the last few hours is that the two tickets purchased In Pattaya by travellers using false passports were issued on the instructions and payment of a Teheran travel agent.
It may mean nothing. But it certainly needs urgent investigation.
It isn't a problem that the countryside doesn't really have much money. The problem is that those living in the countryside expect to be subsidised for their lifestyle choices off the back of those of us who live in large cities living much greener, much more economically productive lives.
I think we get the message that you don't rate countryside living much.
Quite the opposite. I rate it highly. But I don't see why I should pay for other people to enjoy it.
The UK would be a dismal place if no one lived outside our major conurbations.
Agreed, but that doesn't mean people should be subsidized to do it.
I'm in favour of devolution for England, but my point is I want it to be devolved to English regions. One unitary English Parliament would mean southerners could trample over northerners even more than they currently do -- a disaster.
I'm pretty sure an economy run along northern thinking was tried in the 1970s and that truly did end in disaster.
And an economy run along southern thinking was tried between the 1980s and 2008, and that ended in an even bigger disaster.
The institutions that blew up the UK economy were:
Northern Rock - NE England, retail banking Halifax Bank of Scotland - Scotland, NW England, retail banking Royal Bank of Scotland - Scotland, retail banking
So, remind me how the South of England blew up the economy, again?
The most interesting news to surface in the last few hours is that the two tickets purchased In Pattaya by travellers using false passports were issued on the instructions and payment of a Teheran travel agent.
It may mean nothing. But it certainly needs urgent investigation.
Mr. Eagles, I am grateful for that information, but I've got a self-imposed ringfencing of my betting activities. It's not that I'm gambling too much or anything, just that I don't have anything really to spare. So, I'm not touching my two accounts, unless I have a ridiculously excellent win and can afford to withdraw a little, and I'm not opening any new ones.
Edited extra bit: speaking of which, I may have a bet for the race. I'm going to wait until my pre-qualifying piece, though. Ladbrokes have added to their markets and now have the full 26 up.
Mr. Eagles, I am grateful for that information, but I've got a self-imposed ringfencing of my betting activities. It's not that I'm gambling too much or anything, just that I don't have anything really to spare. So, I'm not touching my two accounts, unless I have a ridiculously excellent win and can afford to withdraw a little, and I'm not opening any new ones.
Edited extra bit: speaking of which, I may have a bet for the race. I'm going to wait until my pre-qualifying piece, though. Ladbrokes have added to their markets and now have the full 26 up.
I know I'm a bad influence.
I've had a bet on Red Bull for the constructors championship, I know their testing has been as successful as the Second Punic Was for the Carthaginians, but given their past form and well Vettel being very good, I think 9/2 could be value.
It isn't a problem that the countryside doesn't really have much money. The problem is that those living in the countryside expect to be subsidised for their lifestyle choices off the back of those of us who live in large cities living much greener, much more economically productive lives.
I think we get the message that you don't rate countryside living much.
Quite the opposite. I rate it highly. But I don't see why I should pay for other people to enjoy it.
The UK would be a dismal place if no one lived outside our major conurbations.
Agreed, but that doesn't mean people should be subsidized to do it.
I'm in favour of devolution for England, but my point is I want it to be devolved to English regions. One unitary English Parliament would mean southerners could trample over northerners even more than they currently do -- a disaster.
I'm pretty sure an economy run along northern thinking was tried in the 1970s and that truly did end in disaster.
And an economy run along southern thinking was tried between the 1980s and 2008, and that ended in an even bigger disaster.
The institutions that blew up the UK economy were:
Northern Rock - NE England, retail banking Halifax Bank of Scotland - Scotland, NW England, retail banking Royal Bank of Scotland - Scotland, retail banking
So, remind me how the South of England blew up the economy, again?
Robert, I presume it was with tongue firmly in cheek that you have RBS as Scotland retail banking. If you believe that you are not well. Even Halifax is a small minority Scotland.
Mr. Eagles, I am grateful for that information, but I've got a self-imposed ringfencing of my betting activities. It's not that I'm gambling too much or anything, just that I don't have anything really to spare. So, I'm not touching my two accounts, unless I have a ridiculously excellent win and can afford to withdraw a little, and I'm not opening any new ones.
Edited extra bit: speaking of which, I may have a bet for the race. I'm going to wait until my pre-qualifying piece, though. Ladbrokes have added to their markets and now have the full 26 up.
If you haven't got a skybet account, then now is the time to open one.
The most interesting news to surface in the last few hours is that the two tickets purchased In Pattaya by travellers using false passports were issued on the instructions and payment of a Teheran travel agent.
It may mean nothing. But it certainly needs urgent investigation.
Perhaps Putin can help? Oh ... umm.
You reckon it was the CIA?
Robert, here is the source of the 'news/rumour'. Totally unofficial post on PPRuNe:
There are reports around that the two passengers that were travelling on fake passports were originally booked on different airlines flying different routes before being changed onto MH370.
Benjaporn Krutnait, owner of the Grand Horizon travel agency in Pattaya, Thailand, said the Iranian, a long-term business contact who she knew only as “Mr Ali”, first asked her to book cheap tickets to Europe for the two men on March 1. Ms Benjaporn initially reserved one of the men on a Qatar Airways flight and the other on Etihad.
But the tickets expired when Ms Benjaporn did not hear back from Mr Ali. When he contacted her again on Thursday, she rebooked the men on the Malaysia Airlines flight through Beijing because it was the cheapest available. Ms Benjaporn booked the tickets through China Southern Airlines via a code share arrangement.
A friend of Mr Ali paid Ms Benjaporn cash for the tickets, she said, adding that it was quite common for people to book tickets in Pattaya through middle men such as Mr Ali, who then take a commission.
Do you know anyone called Mr. Ali working for the CIA?
It isn't a problem that the countryside doesn't really have much money. The problem is that those living in the countryside expect to be subsidised for their lifestyle choices off the back of those of us who live in large cities living much greener, much more economically productive lives.
I think we get the message that you don't rate countryside living much.
Quite the opposite. I rate it highly. But I don't see why I should pay for other people to enjoy it.
The UK would be a dismal place if no one lived outside our major conurbations.
Agreed, but that doesn't mean people should be subsidized to do it.
I'm in favour of devolution for England, but my point is I want it to be devolved to English regions. One unitary English Parliament would mean southerners could trample over northerners even more than they currently do -- a disaster.
I'm pretty sure an economy run along northern thinking was tried in the 1970s and that truly did end in disaster.
And an economy run along southern thinking was tried between the 1980s and 2008, and that ended in an even bigger disaster.
The institutions that blew up the UK economy were:
Northern Rock - NE England, retail banking Halifax Bank of Scotland - Scotland, NW England, retail banking Royal Bank of Scotland - Scotland, retail banking
So, remind me how the South of England blew up the economy, again?
Robert, I presume it was with tongue firmly in cheek that you have RBS as Scotland retail banking. If you believe that you are not well. Even Halifax is a small minority Scotland.
In May 2007 Alex Salmond wrote to RBS boss Fred Goodwin, later described as “the world’s worst banker”, in support of Goodwin’s disastrous takeover of ANB Ambro by RBS. “Dear Fred” he began and ended “Yours for Scotland, Alex.”
Mr. Carnyx, you may have missed earlier relevant posts. Mr. 565 is banging on about running the economy the 'northern' [English] way. He said (I paraphrase) we tried it the 'southern' way from about 1980 to 2008. I pointed out the Labour Chancellors were not only not from the south of England, they were not even from England.
Comments
Mr. 565, absolute tosh. England's one land. Yorkshire isn't more like Scotland than it is Devon (a lovely part of the world).
Mr. Eagles, you've been corrupted by the foul vapours of Mordor's swamps.
Why do you ask?
Then again...
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1322580/Aircraft-crashes-crocodile-escapes-killing-British-pilot-19-others.html
More than 20 councils have used or plan to use controversial lie detector tests to catch fraudulent benefits claimants, despite the government dropping the technology because it was found to be not sufficiently reliable.
Responding to freedom of information (FOI) requests, 24 local authorities confirmed they had employed or were considering the use of "voice risk analysis" (VRA) software, which its makers say can pick out fraudulent claimants by listening in on calls and identifying signs of stress.
Although in 2010 the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) announced it had given up VRA software, the FOI responses show councils have been spending, in some cases, millions of pounds on the technology.
http://www.theguardian.com/society/2014/mar/10/councils-use-lie-detector-tests-benefits-fraudsters
;-)
Really? Much of the new work, or work on lines closed to traffic (e.g. track renewals), is done by private contractors (for instance you see a lot of Balfour Beattie bods around), but an awful lot of maintenance is done in-house by NR track and s&t people. I'd be interested to see a breakdown between the work done by NR and that by contractors.
NR got its finger burnt when Jarvis failed. The company had been going since 1846 before it failed in 2010.
I once went to a lap dancing club in Wigan, one the ladies sat in my lap, and whispered seductively in my ear
"So what would you like me to take off first?"
I replied with "My glasses"
"The prosecution case against Mr Evans is that he, often when in drink, pressed his sexual attentions on those younger men, using or trading on his position of influence.
'Now this behaviour did not happen once but has been repeated over time and despite repeated warnings given to him by others.
'It has also escalated in seriousness, no doubt because he believed that his position made it less than likely that someone would complain.'
Mr Heywood continued: 'The prosecution alleges that he, on separate occasions over many years, has sexually assaulted young men, both in public situations and in private.
'By the last of the these, in early 2013, he raped one of the young men"
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2577468/Former-deputy-speaker-Nigel-Evans-used-influence-Westminster-sexually-assault-young-men.html
Adults from ethnic minority backgrounds are more likely to be educated to a high standard than their white British peers, according to research.
Figures show they are significantly more likely to hold a degree and less likely to have no qualifications at all than their white counterparts.
People from the best-qualified group – Chinese – were around 75 per cent more likely to be university educated than those identified as white British.
The study by Manchester University also found that many ethnic minorities had seen bigger overall improvements in education standards over the last 20 years.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationnews/10688017/White-British-adults-less-qualified-than-ethnic-minorities.html
There is --- http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greater_Manchester_Combined_Authority
I replied with "My glasses"
She then asked me if I'd like to 'play ay-round'
I said I didn;t have my golf clubs with me.
"People from the white gypsy or Irish traveller, Pakistani, Bangladeshi and white and black Caribbean groups were less likely than white British people to have degree level qualifications or equivalent."
Worst yet, it would mean, should England ever become a nation unto itself, we'd be lumbered with petty regional assemblies. What we need is a Parliament.
They knew they were in trouble during those last minutes, but they thought they were flying too high and fast, when in fact the problem was precisely the opposite:
http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/aviation/crashes/what-really-happened-aboard-air-france-447-6611877-2
Surprised Southampton is so high!
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_urban_areas_in_the_United_Kingdom
This is the sort of stupid conclusion you get from combining the ethnic Chinese with Irish travellers. The high skilled groups don't have inequalities in education and the labour market. The low skilled groups do.
Throughout history what we've seen is that people from all around the world, inter alia, the Danes, Septimius Severus, people from the Indian Sub-continent have all moved to live and work in Yorkshire.
All because they've heard about Yorkshire's brilliance and beauty.
I am imagining it like in the movies, where the plane is being pinged by radar every few seconds...
I have been browsing the PPRuNe blogsite. The thread on MH370 seemed though to be growing faster than I was reading it, so, in the end, I just dipped in.
I did see a good post on radar capability. Apparently civil radar systems operating in the area at the time would not have been able to detect a plane flying below 30,000 ft . This accounts for the altitude reading of 0 ft on some of the tracking reports. The zero is this case should apparently be interpreted as "below 30,000 ft and undetected by radar".
There was also some informed discussion about military radar systems which are designed to detect at lower altitudes. Apparently the difficulty here is that these systems filter out known commercial aircraft as the interest is only in "exception management".
The poster suggested that the raw data input into the military systems and filtered out by the software may (after weeding to remove any secret data unrelated to the airline crash) be able to offer some clues as to what happened to MH370 below 30,000 feet.
Amazing what can be learnt from blogs!
As well as being extremely funny it is one of those books that you keep looking at its publication date in amazement. We recently "celebrated" the 25th anniversary of the internet. The book was published in 1992. Just an incredible vision of how things might develop.
The second half is more complex and frankly confusing in places but the futurescape is just awe inspiring.
Arsenal to beat Bayern Munich at 9/1 with a lot of places - Is worth opening account with some to obtain the full value
http://www.oddschecker.com/football/champions-league/bayern-munich-v-arsenal/winner
City to beat Barca, you can get around 5/1 to 9/2 with a lot of places
http://www.oddschecker.com/football/champions-league/barcelona-v-man-city/winner
Civilian ATC mostly use secondary radar. The radar send a signal to the aircraft's transponder (transmitter/responder), which responds with data including its code (essentially an ID). Again, this only works within radar range.
Therefore 'suddenly disappearing off radar'; would occur if it went outside range (as seems to be the case here), or below line-of-sight of the ATC radar. If the plane has gone out of range of the radars, then it becomes very hard to discover where it went down.
Transponders are a variant of the military Identify-Friend-Foe system, and amongst other things allows air-traffic controllers to tell which flight is which, and their altitude. This means it is perfectly possible to 'disappear' off an ATC secondary radar simply by turning off the transponder, or in some cases by setting the transponder to the incorrect mode.
In addition, the ACARS system can be used to send short messages on the plane's status via a separate radio system. This proved useful in diagnosing what happened to AF flight 447. Position can also be sent by other means to allow tracking, but AFAICR that is not obligatory, and dependent on individual airlines.
The militaries of the respective countries use primary radar extensively. They have probably played back their radar logs to see if they picked up anything.
Mostly from memory. I daresay someone will be along soon to correct me if any of that is wrong or oversimplified. ;-)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aircraft_Communication_Addressing_and_Reporting_System
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transponder_(aviation)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secondary_surveillance_radar
I think you'll see a massive divergence between the party's performances before and after that event.
That is verging on the ridiculous. Button was right when he said it would be good for the sport if Red Bull have a bad season.
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/11c2b60c-a84a-11e3-a946-00144feab7de.html?siteedition=uk
"The idea that London was a fortress of gentlemanly values until a moral fall that occurred at some indistinct time around the millennium is ahistorical. It has always been open to the point of nihilism, hosting even troublemakers and scoundrels, some rich, some not. If that is lamentable, it was worth lamenting 30, 50 or 100 years ago. It should not be shown as a particular quirk of our age in frothy works of zeitgeist journalism.
Neither should we pretend that London’s hospitability to globalisation does nothing for ordinary Londoners. Foreign investment and contributions from the City (which, given the internationalism of that financial centre, amounts to the same thing) are helping to pay for London’s most extensive makeover since at least the docklands revival of the 1980s, which itself had foreign help. Areas that used to serve as bywords for dilapidation – King’s Cross, Battersea power station, Elephant and Castle – are the subjects of lavish regeneration. The colossal Tate Modern, the world’s most-visited modern art gallery, is getting even bigger to meet demand. Taking shape underground is Crossrail, the biggest construction project in Europe. This great fury of building – London is now a city of cranes and giant drilling machines – would not happen in a city that turned away from globalisation.
Critics say London is an unequal city as though Paris, Moscow and New York are not. They lament the price of property as though Hong Kong and Tokyo are famous for their affordable town houses. London suffers all the pathologies of a city of its size and importance.
There was a time when London really was depopulating year on year, when infrastructure decayed, when whole parts of town were left to fester without even a plan for revival. These were the decades before the 1980s, a period romanticised by those down on the London of Abramovich. It is now a city of ever more people, of endless construction, of falling crime and improving schools – a magnet to Europe’s young.
Londoners appreciate the anguish shown on their behalf by the foreign media. But, really, we are coping."
That was a good demolition of many of the sillier points of the NYT article. It did not, however, address the point that the morality of the UK's foreign policy was being downgraded behind London's courting of dirty Russian money.
Thatcher in the 1980s stood up for the oppressed nations of Eastern Europe. Cameron doesn't deserve to fill her shoes based on his courting of foreign oligarchs over the well-being of Ukraine.
The Docklands will remain a massive centre in 100 years. What will New Labour have to show for their wasted 13 years?
In other words, they were black, or at least one of them was.
http://www.straitstimes.com/the-big-story/missing-mas-plane/story/missing-malaysia-airlines-plane-2-suspects-stolen-passports-ar
Some Labourites claim the Thatcher government tried to destroy communities. So let's compare it with what followed. Despite a massive change in industries, the Conservative governments tried revitalisting local areas with the flower festivals and brought in new industries, for instance Toyota, Honda and Nissan. All of which, you note, are away from the southeast.
Labour destroyed communities through the hideous, sickening, un-green and barmy Pathfinder project, and let Rover go to the wall.
It's a slightly unfair comparison, but fun. ;-)
It's obvious that he was so ashamed of his support for section 28 that he felt obliged to, er, promote homosexuality.
Please Nigel, use that as your defense. I could do with a laugh.
Your persistent line that the Maidan protestors and Ukrainian nationalists are a group of oppressed, freedom loving, democratic, western thinking, oligarch and corruption free saints is naive.
So too is your line that the Russians, whether in Moscow or in the Eastern and Southern Regions of the Ukraine, are totalitarian oppressors with diametrically opposite attributes.
Thatcher may well have taken a public line in the 1980s opposed to communist government in Eastern Europe, but it should be remembered that the abandonment of communism and breakup of the Soviet Union and Warsaw Pact counties between 1989 and 1991 resulted far more from internal combustion than external pressure. It was Gorbachev recognising the need to reform communism if it was to survive that led to partial reforms which were then extended in the nationalism cause to full abandonment. It was the Russian Federation which overthrew the USSR, not a Reagan-Thatcher moral crusade..
Undoubtedly Russia has greater economic, military and political power than rump Ukraine, but it also has a relatively less corrupt governance and economy and is the government favoured by large swathes of the population in the more prosperous areas of the Ukraine.
Does London show greater moral integrity by courting the money of Ukrainian rather than Russian oligarchs? Is the well-being of the Ukraine better served by allowing it to become a geo-political battlefield between the EU and Russia?
The solution to the current crisis lies in politicians on all sides moving away from extreme and simplistic interpretations of a very complex situation.
Deposit £5 and place a bet, and they'll give you £20 worth of free bets.
If you go back to - say - 1970, we exported a wide range of things, from machinery to cars to electronics to services.
Now, if you look at where Britain is world leading, we have a great position in specialist engineering, but it's a tiny portion of exports, likewise in semiconductor design.
We are very dependent on the export of services, and I think that is slightly dangerous.
Re exports, while the weakness of the Eurozone has been a factor, it's worth noting that despite a massive devaluation post GFC, 13 of the 15 Eurozone countries have beaten us in terms of change of absolute value of exports, so that cannot be the dominant factor.
It may mean nothing. But it certainly needs urgent investigation.
Perhaps Putin can help? Oh ... umm.
Northern Rock - NE England, retail banking
Halifax Bank of Scotland - Scotland, NW England, retail banking
Royal Bank of Scotland - Scotland, retail banking
So, remind me how the South of England blew up the economy, again?
I don't think that is clear at all. What are you measurements are you using to come to that conclusion?
Edited extra bit: speaking of which, I may have a bet for the race. I'm going to wait until my pre-qualifying piece, though. Ladbrokes have added to their markets and now have the full 26 up.
I've had a bet on Red Bull for the constructors championship, I know their testing has been as successful as the Second Punic Was for the Carthaginians, but given their past form and well Vettel being very good, I think 9/2 could be value.
Even Halifax is a small minority Scotland.
£150 free bets for the Cheltenham festival:
http://www.sportinglife.com/racing/news/article/2/9204695/cheltenham-festival-bet-offer
It's difficult to lose money with that offer.
There are reports around that the two passengers that were travelling on fake passports were originally booked on different airlines flying different routes before being changed onto MH370.
Benjaporn Krutnait, owner of the Grand Horizon travel agency in Pattaya, Thailand, said the Iranian, a long-term business contact who she knew only as “Mr Ali”, first asked her to book cheap tickets to Europe for the two men on March 1. Ms Benjaporn initially reserved one of the men on a Qatar Airways flight and the other on Etihad.
But the tickets expired when Ms Benjaporn did not hear back from Mr Ali. When he contacted her again on Thursday, she rebooked the men on the Malaysia Airlines flight through Beijing because it was the cheapest available. Ms Benjaporn booked the tickets through China Southern Airlines via a code share arrangement.
A friend of Mr Ali paid Ms Benjaporn cash for the tickets, she said, adding that it was quite common for people to book tickets in Pattaya through middle men such as Mr Ali, who then take a commission.
Do you know anyone called Mr. Ali working for the CIA?
'Airlinersh don;t jusht dishappear M.
Quite so Bond. Anyway you're off to Thailand, where your first contact will be a Ms Benjaporn...
Bet she doesh M, bet she doesh....Ah Moneypenny
http://www.spiked-online.com/newsite/article/14764#.Ux4U6rvySW8
Apart from the Grammar schools, I largely agree. The Seventies were good times to be young.
Tim Montgomerie has quit as the Comment Editor of the Times, will stay on as a columnist.
'That is scary,how the hell is labour getting away this.'
What's even more scary are the levels of increases in income tax,NI & council tax that will be required to pay for Labour's spending program.
that has to count as one of the saddest comments on PB ever.