For all of us on either Labour or Tory sides who have frustrations with our campaigns, atleast we can console ourselves with one thing:
It's not as lacklustre or uninspiring as the Lib Dem campaign.
Noone will, they are fighting 60 by-elections.
Crikey I'd have thought the streets would be awash with "Winning here" yellow paint in Eastbourne. I mean I've not noticed there is even an election on, but NE Derbyshire is a big ask for the Conservatives and my ward is solid Labour tbh.
Santa Fe accomplished the resupply mission and landed the marine troops on 25 April. Members of the Argentine garrison had salvaged a crippled BAS launch, which was used to download the cargo.[5]
Some hours later, after leaving Grytviken, Santa Fe was detected on radar by Lieutenant Chris Parry, the observer of the Westland Wessex HAS.3 anti-submarine helicopter from HMS Antrim, and attacked with depth charges. This attack caused extensive internal damage, including the splitting of a ballast tank, the dismounting of electrical components and shocks to the machinery
I'm a loony lefty, but I like the idea of keeping Trident. It might be irrational, but I don't want to risk being "naked" in this world with so many threats, thanks.
I'm a far right Tory, and I'd be ok with us not replacing Trident.
Your the liberal metro elite leader of Economical Dry But Not Banging On About Europe and Gays.
I'm also very strong on defence.
I'd increase defence spending to 2.5% of GDP and spend the money on the Navy and our conventional forces.
It is a shame, the RAF really have become the few.
Heck, the RN are so fierce they even sunk a submarine using a helicopter.
Labour (and especially Hoon) should be ashamed of the way they emasculated the FAA.
I have stood beside Petty Officer Felix Artuso's grave in Grytviken. He is in the same small cemetery as Sir Ernest Shackleton.
I was doing it four years ago. The little bits of Empire dotted around the southern Atlantic.
Ushaia, Tierra del Fuego --> Antarctica --> South Georgia --> Gough Island --> Tristan da Cunha (and Nightingale Island and Inaccessible Island) --> St. Helena --> Ascension Island --> Cape Verde
That does not address the point I was making: the article looks entirely wrongheaded. And linky to the admiral's comments, please.
The admiral quote is 'accurate' but they were not 'admitting' anything, they were desperate to paint themselves as vulnerable to a weapons ystem that doesn't exists as they then said "... and that is why we need loads more funding to spend on toys"
All those referencing Cain and Abel should recall that Cain was the older brother. And it was Cain that ended up in the land of Nod, while when Ed Miliband speaks, it's the audience that is sent there.
I always find it amusing
"So Cain went out from the Lord’s presence and lived in the land of Nod,[f] east of Eden.
17 Cain made love to his wife, and she became pregnant and gave birth to Enoch. Cain was then building a city, and he named it after his son Enoch. "
Now Cain was the elder son of Adam and Abel the younger - so where did his wife come from - and why did he need to build a city as presumably there were only three people alive at the time - Adam Eve and Cain?
I'm a loony lefty, but I like the idea of keeping Trident. It might be irrational, but I don't want to risk being "naked" in this world with so many threats, thanks.
I'm a far right Tory, and I'd be ok with us not replacing Trident.
Your the liberal metro elite leader of Economical Dry But Not Banging On About Europe and Gays.
I'm also very strong on defence.
I'd increase defence spending to 2.5% of GDP and spend the money on the Navy and our conventional forces.
It is a shame, the RAF really have become the few.
The role for the RAF is fading fast, projecting power is about carriers, you could almost reduce the RAF to an airspace defense/interdiction force and move all the strike capability to Fleet Air Arm (if we had a few real carriers and support ships). Sadly a Nimitz class carrier costs around $4.5bn, so about twice as much as the whole trident replacement program.
Perhaps you should do some reading up on how useful Carriers actually are.
Here's a clue. Aircraft Carriers have no defence against Ballistic Missiles (1940s technology). None.
No-one has a proven anti-ship ballistic missile.
I know, I know, you've heard about some Chinese something or other but that's a project, it's not an actual thing that's actually been used. IT was used by the US Navy to try and get more funding for their toys.
And, in practice no-one would use a ballistic missile against an actual carrier group because the trouble with ballistic missiles is that they look like ballistic missiles and that means they are indistinguishable from a nuclear weapon launch.
The war nerd had good article explaining why the navy, but especially carriers, are just sitting ducks.
I saw that article a while ago. And it is awful. I don't have the time to deconstruct it fully but as a general rule of thumb you can discount any article on the military that present cavalry-vs-longbow in such a cack fisted one-dimensional manner.
Convenient.
How many ships did we lose to the Argentines in the Falklands? Tech has moved on from the exocet.
The Exocet would be compleltely ineffective against RN ships today.
The great benefit of Trident (at least in principle) is that you can be very far from trigger-happy. If we had a deterrent that was land based in say Hastings and New Cross (chosen deliberately), and they were blown up somewhat then there might be a very great rush to decide whether to retaliate against any presumed adversary (albeit one with good taste). With the nukes safely on submarines then we can dither all we like.
For Ed surely; HMS Dither, HMS Confusion, and HMS But I Say
If Ed M "stabbed his own brother in the back" - it's always nice to see a senior government minister capable of avoiding cliché - then so did David M, right?
How unrelated do you have to be to someone for it no longer to be dishonourable to compete against them? Would cousins be okay?
The backstabbing was not EdM running against his brother.
It was 2 years beforehand, when he encouraged him not to try and unseat Brown "for the good of the party" while secretly calculating it maximised his personal chances of becoming PM.
It's become a real mixed bag. Loads of immigrants, asylum seekers and students. I've been in numerous conversations with Syrians, Iraqis and the Big Issue sellers are Romanian.
Walking down any street near the town centre is a gaggle of languages even in January. It's totally different to how it was when I moved near here back in 1997.
Then it was all grey hairs, mobility scooters and a sprinkling of summer students from France/Germany.
For all of us on either Labour or Tory sides who have frustrations with our campaigns, atleast we can console ourselves with one thing:
It's not as lacklustre or uninspiring as the Lib Dem campaign.
Noone will, they are fighting 60 by-elections.
Crikey I'd have thought the streets would be awash with "Winning here" yellow paint in Eastbourne. I mean I've not noticed there is even an election on, but NE Derbyshire is a big ask for the Conservatives and my ward is solid Labour tbh.
I believe there was confirmation recently of Neanderthal DNA in humans (to no one's great surprise - if it was possible to have sex, we assumed they would). They did mingle and the only doubt was whether the embryo would be viable. By that I mean that it could be carried to term.
Labour are on a core vote strategy. Dropping Trident 2 would have absolutely no effect on their core vote. Might even get them a LOT of Greens onside and a big chunk of the former Liberals.
Imo, a lot of "working-class" core Labour voters wouldn't take well to any impression of Labour being soft on defence. It was one of the main reasons Thatcher made inroads with those voters.
If they committed to fitting out HMS Prince Charles and arming it along with thousands of jobs that would bring, they don't need to look soft, they can sell it as "far more suited to the modern threats like ISIS" there little risk of that.
Not persuaded they would lose anything even without the Prince Charles commitment.
Cameron and the Conservatives have already committed to fitting out the PoW and putting it (*) into service.
(*) I think ships are meant to be referred to as 'her'., but that seems wrong with one called the Prince of Wales?
She's still a she even with a male name.
And oh, those Tories, spending from the Magic Money Tree again. When will they learn.
Ships named after blokes should be referred to as he/him/his in my opinion
Navy ships shouldn't have poncy male or female names but proper mean fighting names like Warspite, Dreadnought, Ironduke, Bloodaxe, Throatripper, Kittenstomper, Deathangel, etc. The RN dropped a bollock with this 'HMS Queen Elisabeth' nonsense. Bah humbug!
Ages ago when the Argies were agitating - didn't someone here calculate that HMS Nuke could destroy a vessel in Buenos Aires without leaving the Thames?
The great benefit of Trident (at least in principle) is that you can be very far from trigger-happy. If we had a deterrent that was land based in say Hastings and New Cross (chosen deliberately), and they were blown up somewhat then there might be a very great rush to decide whether to retaliate against any presumed adversary (albeit one with good taste). With the nukes safely on submarines then we can dither all we like.
For Ed surely; HMS Dither, HMS Confusion, and HMS But I Say
Labour are on a core vote strategy. Dropping Trident 2 would have absolutely no effect on their core vote. Might even get them a LOT of Greens onside and a big chunk of the former Liberals.
Imo, a lot of "working-class" core Labour voters wouldn't take well to any impression of Labour being soft on defence. It was one of the main reasons Thatcher made inroads with those voters.
If they committed to fitting out HMS Prince Charles and arming it along with thousands of jobs that would bring, they don't need to look soft, they can sell it as "far more suited to the modern threats like ISIS" there little risk of that.
Not persuaded they would lose anything even without the Prince Charles commitment.
Cameron and the Conservatives have already committed to fitting out the PoW and putting it (*) into service.
(*) I think ships are meant to be referred to as 'her'., but that seems wrong with one called the Prince of Wales?
She's still a she even with a male name.
And oh, those Tories, spending from the Magic Money Tree again. When will they learn.
Ships named after blokes should be referred to as he/him/his in my opinion
Navy ships shouldn't have poncy male or female names but proper mean fighting names like Warspite, Dreadnought, Ironduke, Bloodaxe, Throatripper, Kittenstomper, Deathangel, etc. The RN dropped a bollock with this 'HMS Queen Elisabeth' nonsense. Bah humbug!
You do not seem to understand your subject. Labour commissioned these carriers without the steam power to operate catapults. The incoming govt did a study into the still unproven magnetic catapults but even if they worked they were too expensive. Labour underestimated the time taken to bring the F35 into service but it will do the job when it does.
Yes, I understand that. The ships should have been designed to take CTOL aircraft from the off. Then we could have bought aircraft already available rather than wait for the unproven F-35.
That was where Labour were utter sh*ts. They said the ships were being designed so they could be retrofitted with catapults at a later date. When the coalition asked BAE to convert them, it turned out that had not been a design requirement for many years.
EMALS (the electric, as opposed to steam, launch system) is also far from ready for service.
I've never understood this ... given aircraft carriers cost squillions and large defence projects always over run, why wasn't the Rolls Royce option factored in from the off?
I shall be concentrating on The Masters for the next 4 days. Oh to be among the azaleas now that April's here.
I will be following the campaign too, from time to time.
Any bets on ?
I'm on Speith and Dustin J...
I'm on Speith £50 EW @ 15/1 and Ernie Els for old times @125/1 £20 EW.
If Bubba shoots a couple of early bogies I might back if his price goes out.
Patric Reed stands a good chance and the there's always Rory...............but my vibes are not vibrating for him this time.
Rory's price is miles too short too. Reed a good shout. Not starting on Sky until 8pm - bah.
I'm following it on PGA.com and the Golf Channel (USA), but it's not like the old days when the BBC would show the entire 4 days from first ball to last. I'll also miss that old whisperer, Peter Allis.
Afternoon Mr.K, may I ask if a visit to Augusta is on your bucket list, or have you been?
I would love to go but sadly it's not on my list and no, I've never been.
I used to live in Augusta and was on the scoring committee at The Masters for several years.
Even HD TV doesn't do justice, particularly the contours on the greens . It is breath taking in its beauty. Even golfing heaven couldn't be this lovely. The club secretary was a neighbor.
Being there is difficult. They closed the patron's list in the late 50s.Patrons frequently will their tickets to a family member. Even practice round tickets are now allocated by raffle. It is the toughest ticket in sports to get, unless you want to pay thousands on StubHub. But when you get there a pimento cheese sandwich and a coke will bring you change from $3.
If Ed M "stabbed his own brother in the back" - it's always nice to see a senior government minister capable of avoiding cliché - then so did David M, right?
How unrelated do you have to be to someone for it no longer to be dishonourable to compete against them? Would cousins be okay?
The backstabbing was not EdM running against his brother.
It was 2 years beforehand, when he encouraged him not to try and unseat Brown "for the good of the party" while secretly calculating it maximised his personal chances of becoming PM.
Labour are on a core vote strategy. Dropping Trident 2 would have absolutely no effect on their core vote. Might even get them a LOT of Greens onside and a big chunk of the former Liberals.
Imo, a lot of "working-class" core Labour voters wouldn't take well to any impression of Labour being soft on defence. It was one of the main reasons Thatcher made inroads with those voters.
If they committed to fitting out HMS Prince Charles and arming it along with thousands of jobs that would bring, they don't need to look soft, they can sell it as "far more suited to the modern threats like ISIS" there little risk of that.
Not persuaded they would lose anything even without the Prince Charles commitment.
Cameron and the Conservatives have already committed to fitting out the PoW and putting it (*) into service.
(*) I think ships are meant to be referred to as 'her'., but that seems wrong with one called the Prince of Wales?
She's still a she even with a male name.
And oh, those Tories, spending from the Magic Money Tree again. When will they learn.
Ships named after blokes should be referred to as he/him/his in my opinion
Navy ships shouldn't have poncy male or female names but proper mean fighting names like Warspite, Dreadnought, Ironduke, Bloodaxe, Throatripper, Kittenstomper, Deathangel, etc. The RN dropped a bollock with this 'HMS Queen Elisabeth' nonsense. Bah humbug!
@Plato - Might sound an odd choice, but if you like things a little hot and sweaty, Belize is spectacular for wild life and their Barrier Reef is only second in size to the Aussie's.
Ballistic missiles are great against a static target, less so if attacking one that is moving around the ocean. And a carrier battle group is hardly likely to hang around a port in wartime. The minute it all kicks off, ships head out to the wide open sea.
However, it's all tracked by satellite. Nothing is hidden, cloud cover is easily pierced by the all seeing eyes.
Satellites can be utterly useless at observing sea and land surfaces through cloud cover, and might not be passing over the ocean where a battle group is stationed (their orbits are all plotted). Why do you think the US are still operating U2's?
That's why ocean surveillance sat use radar in some cases at least. Not sure of current ones mind.
@Plato - Might sound an odd choice, but if you like things a little hot and sweaty, Belize is spectacular for wild life and their Barrier Reef is only second in size to the Aussie's.
So Iran is not going to sign a nuclear weapons deal until ALL sanctions are off the table..Lets get rid of Trident..we will never need it..
Remind me how many countries Iran has attacked/invaded since the mad mullahs took over?
They do it by proxies. Clever, no?
So none then.
I'm not carrying a torch for Iran, or Russia here, but I am saying that our image of what consitutes 'danger' in the world is seen entirely through the lense of US geopolitical objectives, and distorted accordingly. Iran is no more aggressive than Saudi Arabia (an autocratic monarchy and the world's biggest sponsor of terror) for instance, who've now started bombing Yemen to 'save democracy'!
If Ed M "stabbed his own brother in the back" - it's always nice to see a senior government minister capable of avoiding cliché - then so did David M, right?
How unrelated do you have to be to someone for it no longer to be dishonourable to compete against them? Would cousins be okay?
The backstabbing was not EdM running against his brother.
It was 2 years beforehand, when he encouraged him not to try and unseat Brown "for the good of the party" while secretly calculating it maximised his personal chances of becoming PM.
If Ed M "stabbed his own brother in the back" - it's always nice to see a senior government minister capable of avoiding cliché - then so did David M, right?
How unrelated do you have to be to someone for it no longer to be dishonourable to compete against them? Would cousins be okay?
The backstabbing was not EdM running against his brother.
It was 2 years beforehand, when he encouraged him not to try and unseat Brown "for the good of the party" while secretly calculating it maximised his personal chances of becoming PM.
That's a serious allegation. What is the source?
The authors, two of Britain’s leading Labour-supporting journalists, say that contrary to Ed’s claim that he made a last-minute decision to run for the leadership, he spent years plotting behind his brother’s back to beat him. And the book refers to reports that he tricked David into not standing against Gordon Brown before the 2010 General Election to boost his own chances later.
Labour are on a core vote strategy. Dropping Trident 2 would have absolutely no effect on their core vote. Might even get them a LOT of Greens onside and a big chunk of the former Liberals.
Imo, a lot of "working-class" core Labour voters wouldn't take well to any impression of Labour being soft on defence. It was one of the main reasons Thatcher made inroads with those voters.
If they committed to fitting out HMS Prince Charles and arming it along with thousands of jobs that would bring, they don't need to look soft, they can sell it as "far more suited to the modern threats like ISIS" there little risk of that.
Not persuaded they would lose anything even without the Prince Charles commitment.
Cameron and the Conservatives have already committed to fitting out the PoW and putting it (*) into service.
(*) I think ships are meant to be referred to as 'her'., but that seems wrong with one called the Prince of Wales?
She's still a she even with a male name.
And oh, those Tories, spending from the Magic Money Tree again. When will they learn.
Ships named after blokes should be referred to as he/him/his in my opinion
Navy ships shouldn't have poncy male or female names but proper mean fighting names like Warspite, Dreadnought, Ironduke, Bloodaxe, Throatripper, Kittenstomper, Deathangel, etc. The RN dropped a bollock with this 'HMS Queen Elisabeth' nonsense. Bah humbug!
Kittenstomper?
Best uniform badges ever.
(Pro tip: never type "kitten stomp" into google images)
If Ed M "stabbed his own brother in the back" - it's always nice to see a senior government minister capable of avoiding cliché - then so did David M, right?
How unrelated do you have to be to someone for it no longer to be dishonourable to compete against them? Would cousins be okay?
The backstabbing was not EdM running against his brother.
It was 2 years beforehand, when he encouraged him not to try and unseat Brown "for the good of the party" while secretly calculating it maximised his personal chances of becoming PM.
If Ed M "stabbed his own brother in the back" - it's always nice to see a senior government minister capable of avoiding cliché - then so did David M, right?
How unrelated do you have to be to someone for it no longer to be dishonourable to compete against them? Would cousins be okay?
The backstabbing was not EdM running against his brother.
It was 2 years beforehand, when he encouraged him not to try and unseat Brown "for the good of the party" while secretly calculating it maximised his personal chances of becoming PM.
That's a serious allegation. What is the source?
The authors, two of Britain’s leading Labour-supporting journalists, say that contrary to Ed’s claim that he made a last-minute decision to run for the leadership, he spent years plotting behind his brother’s back to beat him. And the book refers to reports that he tricked David into not standing against Gordon Brown before the 2010 General Election to boost his own chances later.
If Ed M "stabbed his own brother in the back" - it's always nice to see a senior government minister capable of avoiding cliché - then so did David M, right?
How unrelated do you have to be to someone for it no longer to be dishonourable to compete against them? Would cousins be okay?
The backstabbing was not EdM running against his brother.
It was 2 years beforehand, when he encouraged him not to try and unseat Brown "for the good of the party" while secretly calculating it maximised his personal chances of becoming PM.
That's a serious allegation. What is the source?
Ed: The Milibands and the making of a Labour leader: Mehdi Hassan / Jim MacIntyre
[the easiest reference I found on google was from the Mail]
The authors, two of Britain’s leading Labour-supporting journalists, say that contrary to Ed’s claim that he made a last-minute decision to run for the leadership, he spent years plotting behind his brother’s back to beat him. And the book refers to reports that he tricked David into not standing against Gordon Brown before the 2010 General Election to boost his own chances later.
You do not seem to understand your subject. Labour commissioned these carriers without the steam power to operate catapults. The incoming govt did a study into the still unproven magnetic catapults but even if they worked they were too expensive. Labour underestimated the time taken to bring the F35 into service but it will do the job when it does.
Yes, I understand that. The ships should have been designed to take CTOL aircraft from the off. Then we could have bought aircraft already available rather than wait for the unproven F-35.
That was where Labour were utter sh*ts. They said the ships were being designed so they could be retrofitted with catapults at a later date. When the coalition asked BAE to convert them, it turned out that had not been a design requirement for many years.
EMALS (the electric, as opposed to steam, launch system) is also far from ready for service.
I've never understood this ... given aircraft carriers cost squillions and large defence projects always over run, why wasn't the Rolls Royce option factored in from the off?
Traditional catapults and arrestors are expensive to run and tricky to maintain. You need a strong and reliable source of steam, and the catapults are very difficult to alter for different aircraft weights.
EMALS is designed to overcome these problems, but it is utterly untried. As an aside, a British firm developed their own system, Converteam's EMCAT. But the MOD decided to go for the US version instead, perhaps for good reasons.
Ballistic missiles are great against a static target, less so if attacking one that is moving around the ocean. And a carrier battle group is hardly likely to hang around a port in wartime. The minute it all kicks off, ships head out to the wide open sea.
However, it's all tracked by satellite. Nothing is hidden, cloud cover is easily pierced by the all seeing eyes.
Satellites can be utterly useless at observing sea and land surfaces through cloud cover, and might not be passing over the ocean where a battle group is stationed (their orbits are all plotted). Why do you think the US are still operating U2's?
That's why ocean surveillance sat use radar in some cases at least. Not sure of current ones mind.
If Ed M "stabbed his own brother in the back" - it's always nice to see a senior government minister capable of avoiding cliché - then so did David M, right?
How unrelated do you have to be to someone for it no longer to be dishonourable to compete against them? Would cousins be okay?
The backstabbing was not EdM running against his brother.
It was 2 years beforehand, when he encouraged him not to try and unseat Brown "for the good of the party" while secretly calculating it maximised his personal chances of becoming PM.
If Ed M "stabbed his own brother in the back" - it's always nice to see a senior government minister capable of avoiding cliché - then so did David M, right?
How unrelated do you have to be to someone for it no longer to be dishonourable to compete against them? Would cousins be okay?
The backstabbing was not EdM running against his brother.
It was 2 years beforehand, when he encouraged him not to try and unseat Brown "for the good of the party" while secretly calculating it maximised his personal chances of becoming PM.
That's a serious allegation. What is the source?
The authors, two of Britain’s leading Labour-supporting journalists, say that contrary to Ed’s claim that he made a last-minute decision to run for the leadership, he spent years plotting behind his brother’s back to beat him. And the book refers to reports that he tricked David into not standing against Gordon Brown before the 2010 General Election to boost his own chances later.
Apparently HMS Taxdodger will be sold off to the Swiss navy.
A few years ago the Swiss had 3 merchant vessels registered under their flag.
Odd but true....
About a decade ago the EU fisheries commissioner was an Austrian, IIRC.
Admiral Horthy ruled Hungary from 1920-1944. Hungary lost its coastline when the Austro-Hungarian Empire broke up in 1918. (the Hungarian part of the Empire included Croatia).
Good afternoon all. Had a good look at the Ashcroft 10 from yesterday. What I found interesting was that the average swing was 1.95% from Conservative to Labour. That would be the equivalent of the Tories on 36% and Labour on 31%. Very different from all the online pollsters.
If Ed M "stabbed his own brother in the back" - it's always nice to see a senior government minister capable of avoiding cliché - then so did David M, right?
How unrelated do you have to be to someone for it no longer to be dishonourable to compete against them? Would cousins be okay?
The backstabbing was not EdM running against his brother.
It was 2 years beforehand, when he encouraged him not to try and unseat Brown "for the good of the party" while secretly calculating it maximised his personal chances of becoming PM.
If Ed M "stabbed his own brother in the back" - it's always nice to see a senior government minister capable of avoiding cliché - then so did David M, right?
How unrelated do you have to be to someone for it no longer to be dishonourable to compete against them? Would cousins be okay?
The backstabbing was not EdM running against his brother.
It was 2 years beforehand, when he encouraged him not to try and unseat Brown "for the good of the party" while secretly calculating it maximised his personal chances of becoming PM.
That's a serious allegation. What is the source?
The authors, two of Britain’s leading Labour-supporting journalists, say that contrary to Ed’s claim that he made a last-minute decision to run for the leadership, he spent years plotting behind his brother’s back to beat him. And the book refers to reports that he tricked David into not standing against Gordon Brown before the 2010 General Election to boost his own chances later.
Why did the Tory get 30 people to nominate him rather than the usual 10? What's the point?
2 reasons, firstly to ensure at least one set of valid nomination papers are lodged and secondly it also cheers up the troops as all 3 will normally be published in the local/regional paper. Many candidates lodge a set of nomination papers only to discover one of the signatories lives in a different constituency. Easily done when e.g. one street is split between 2 seats.
I don't think any of the big parties other than the SNP seem to have realised that attack ads are utterly pointless.
Sure, you can undermine the person you attack and if you succeed stop voters backing them. But you then have no control over where any disillusioned voters go afterwards.
Goodness me. I want confirmation that they haven't got Labour and Conservatives the wrong way round before I make some preumptuous comments akin to the ones after the YouGov 4% lead a few weeks back.
You do not seem to understand your subject. Labour commissioned these carriers without the steam power to operate catapults. The incoming govt did a study into the still unproven magnetic catapults but even if they worked they were too expensive. Labour underestimated the time taken to bring the F35 into service but it will do the job when it does.
Yes, I understand that. The ships should have been designed to take CTOL aircraft from the off. Then we could have bought aircraft already available rather than wait for the unproven F-35.
That was where Labour were utter sh*ts. They said the ships were being designed so they could be retrofitted with catapults at a later date. When the coalition asked BAE to convert them, it turned out that had not been a design requirement for many years.
EMALS (the electric, as opposed to steam, launch system) is also far from ready for service.
I've never understood this ... given aircraft carriers cost squillions and large defence projects always over run, why wasn't the Rolls Royce option factored in from the off?
Traditional catapults and arrestors are expensive to run and tricky to maintain. You need a strong and reliable source of steam, and the catapults are very difficult to alter for different aircraft weights.
EMALS is designed to overcome these problems, but it is utterly untried. As an aside, a British firm developed their own system, Converteam's EMCAT. But the MOD decided to go for the US version instead, perhaps for good reasons.
You do not seem to understand your subject. Labour commissioned these carriers without the steam power to operate catapults. The incoming govt did a study into the still unproven magnetic catapults but even if they worked they were too expensive. Labour underestimated the time taken to bring the F35 into service but it will do the job when it does.
Yes, I understand that. The ships should have been designed to take CTOL aircraft from the off. Then we could have bought aircraft already available rather than wait for the unproven F-35.
That was where Labour were utter sh*ts. They said the ships were being designed so they could be retrofitted with catapults at a later date. When the coalition asked BAE to convert them, it turned out that had not been a design requirement for many years.
EMALS (the electric, as opposed to steam, launch system) is also far from ready for service.
I've never understood this ... given aircraft carriers cost squillions and large defence projects always over run, why wasn't the Rolls Royce option factored in from the off?
Traditional catapults and arrestors are expensive to run and tricky to maintain. You need a strong and reliable source of steam, and the catapults are very difficult to alter for different aircraft weights.
EMALS is designed to overcome these problems, but it is utterly untried. As an aside, a British firm developed their own system, Converteam's EMCAT. But the MOD decided to go for the US version instead, perhaps for good reasons.
Update on Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross. This afternoon the SNP had a table in the High St outside the Tolbooth and Sheriff Court with around a dozen people obviously there to promote them.
Apparently HMS Taxdodger will be sold off to the Swiss navy.
A few years ago the Swiss had 3 merchant vessels registered under their flag.
Odd but true....
About a decade ago the EU fisheries commissioner was an Austrian, IIRC.
Admiral Horthy ruled Hungary from 1920-1944. Hungary lost its coastline when the Austro-Hungarian Empire broke up in 1918. (the Hungarian part of the Empire included Croatia).
Trieste was an actual part of Austria, so it wasn't the loss of Croatia that took away Austria's coastline.
@JBeattieMirror: Lab take 4pt lead in @Survation poll for @DailyMirror Lab 35(+2), Cons 31(-1), UKIP 15 (-3), Lib Dem 9 (+1) and SNP & Greens on 4% #GE2015
Apparently HMS Taxdodger will be sold off to the Swiss navy.
A few years ago the Swiss had 3 merchant vessels registered under their flag.
Odd but true....
About a decade ago the EU fisheries commissioner was an Austrian, IIRC.
Admiral Horthy ruled Hungary from 1920-1944. Hungary lost its coastline when the Austro-Hungarian Empire broke up in 1918. (the Hungarian part of the Empire included Croatia).
President Roosevelt asked an aide in 1941 if Hungary, which had just declared war against the United States, was a kingdom or a republic. “A kingdom, Mr. President”, the aide replied. This dialogue followed:
FDR: What’s the King’s name?
Aide: Hungary doesn’t have a King.
FDR: Then who runs the kingdom?
Aide: A Regent by the name of Admiral Miklós Horthy.
FDR: Admiral? Then Hungary must have a powerful navy.
Aide: Hungary has no navy; it doesn’t even have access to the sea.
FDR: Wars are often fought for religious reasons. What’s the main religion there?
Aide: Catholicism, Mr. President. But Admiral Horthy is Protestant.
FDR: Did this admiral declare war on us because of territorial claims then?
Aide: Hungary’s territorial claims are against Romania.
FDR: In that case, did Hungary declare war on Romania?
Aide: No, Hungary and Romania are allies.
FDR: Let me get this straight. Hungary is a kingdom run by a Regent who’s an admiral without a navy, and it is allied with Romania against which it has territorial claims but it has declared war on the U.S. against which it doesn’t.
Apparently HMS Taxdodger will be sold off to the Swiss navy.
A few years ago the Swiss had 3 merchant vessels registered under their flag.
Odd but true....
About a decade ago the EU fisheries commissioner was an Austrian, IIRC.
Admiral Horthy ruled Hungary from 1920-1944. Hungary lost its coastline when the Austro-Hungarian Empire broke up in 1918. (the Hungarian part of the Empire included Croatia).
Trieste was an actual part of Austria, so it wasn't the loss of Croatia that took away Austria's coastline.
I was talking about Hungary! Kingdom of Hungary (within Austria-Hungary) was Hungary, Croatia, Slovakia, Vojvodina in Serbia, and western Romania (Transylvania), with tiny parts of Slovenia and the eastern strip of modern Austria.
Why did the Tory get 30 people to nominate him rather than the usual 10? What's the point?
2 reasons, firstly to ensure at least one set of valid nomination papers are lodged and secondly it also cheers up the troops as all 3 will normally be published in the local/regional paper. Many candidates lodge a set of nomination papers only to discover one of the signatories lives in a different constituency. Easily done when e.g. one street is split between 2 seats.
You mean people don't meticulously check the seat specific register in advance of asking people to nominate you like I did then?
Lucky Guy .. Maybe you should read a little more.. the Iranian Government is suspected of being behind most of the ammunition supplies to the Yemen, Hezbollah and other extremist groups in the Middle East and they still claim the will attack and destroy Israel No links but plenty of info out there if you wish to DYOR..They seem to be able to get other groups to do their dirty work for them.
I believe there was confirmation recently of Neanderthal DNA in humans (to no one's great surprise - if it was possible to have sex, we assumed they would). They did mingle and the only doubt was whether the embryo would be viable.
I believe there was confirmation recently of Neanderthal DNA in humans (to no one's great surprise - if it was possible to have sex, we assumed they would). They did mingle and the only doubt was whether the embryo would be viable.
I believe there was confirmation recently of Neanderthal DNA in humans (to no one's great surprise - if it was possible to have sex, we assumed they would). They did mingle and the only doubt was whether the embryo would be viable.
Comments
I came up with 18 countries to visit that I'd missed so far off the top of my head. I was doing it four years ago. The little bits of Empire dotted around the southern Atlantic.
Ushaia, Tierra del Fuego --> Antarctica --> South Georgia --> Gough Island --> Tristan da Cunha (and Nightingale Island and Inaccessible Island) --> St. Helena --> Ascension Island --> Cape Verde
For Ed surely; HMS Dither, HMS Confusion, and HMS But I Say
It was 2 years beforehand, when he encouraged him not to try and unseat Brown "for the good of the party" while secretly calculating it maximised his personal chances of becoming PM.
Walking down any street near the town centre is a gaggle of languages even in January. It's totally different to how it was when I moved near here back in 1997.
Then it was all grey hairs, mobility scooters and a sprinkling of summer students from France/Germany.
Odd but true....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jr6CyU-Ev_M
http://www.cheltenham.gov.uk/downloads/file/4229/notice_of_persons_nominated_and_notice_of_poll
Even HD TV doesn't do justice, particularly the contours on the greens . It is breath taking in its beauty. Even golfing heaven couldn't be this lovely. The club secretary was a neighbor.
Being there is difficult. They closed the patron's list in the late 50s.Patrons frequently will their tickets to a family member. Even practice round tickets are now allocated by raffle. It is the toughest ticket in sports to get, unless you want to pay thousands on StubHub. But when you get there a pimento cheese sandwich and a coke will bring you change from $3.
[Gets ELBOW ready...]
http://order-order.com/2015/04/09/snp-labour-or-how-i-stopped-quibbling-and-learned-to-love-the-bomb
I'm not carrying a torch for Iran, or Russia here, but I am saying that our image of what consitutes 'danger' in the world is seen entirely through the lense of US geopolitical objectives, and distorted accordingly. Iran is no more aggressive than Saudi Arabia (an autocratic monarchy and the world's biggest sponsor of terror) for instance, who've now started bombing Yemen to 'save democracy'!
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2002624/War-Milibands-Full-extent-brothers-feud-exposed.html#ixzz3WpKgRgAZ
Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook
(Pro tip: never type "kitten stomp" into google images)
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Ed-Milibands-making-Labour-leader/dp/1849541027/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&sr=&qid=
[the easiest reference I found on google was from the Mail]
The authors, two of Britain’s leading Labour-supporting journalists, say that contrary to Ed’s claim that he made a last-minute decision to run for the leadership, he spent years plotting behind his brother’s back to beat him. And the book refers to reports that he tricked David into not standing against Gordon Brown before the 2010 General Election to boost his own chances later.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2002624/War-Milibands-Full-extent-brothers-feud-exposed.html
@politicshome: Labour goes after Lynton Crosby over tax affairs http://t.co/NzSvioXpHF http://t.co/yxvJP2Yj2g
EMALS is designed to overcome these problems, but it is utterly untried. As an aside, a British firm developed their own system, Converteam's EMCAT. But the MOD decided to go for the US version instead, perhaps for good reasons.
http://www.thinkdefence.co.uk/2014/05/whatever-happened-emcat/
For a moment I thought you meant 'Rolls Royce option' to refer to nuke power for the carriers. ;-)
@paulhutcheon: I hear the Tories are confident of getting two MPs returned in Scotland: Mundell and Tasmina
#GE2015
I know you hate but this is pathetic.
* unless there's a baby panda.
"SNP leaders 'are like Chairman Mao', says Clegg"
Sure, you can undermine the person you attack and if you succeed stop voters backing them. But you then have no control over where any disillusioned voters go afterwards.
Draw your own conclusions...
Just been nostalging on youtube videos of Phantom and Buccaneer carrier landings.
FDR: What’s the King’s name?
Aide: Hungary doesn’t have a King.
FDR: Then who runs the kingdom?
Aide: A Regent by the name of Admiral Miklós Horthy.
FDR: Admiral? Then Hungary must have a powerful navy.
Aide: Hungary has no navy; it doesn’t even have access to the sea.
FDR: Wars are often fought for religious reasons. What’s the main religion there?
Aide: Catholicism, Mr. President. But Admiral Horthy is Protestant.
FDR: Did this admiral declare war on us because of territorial claims then?
Aide: Hungary’s territorial claims are against Romania.
FDR: In that case, did Hungary declare war on Romania?
Aide: No, Hungary and Romania are allies.
FDR: Let me get this straight. Hungary is a kingdom run by a Regent who’s an admiral without a navy, and it is allied with Romania against which it has territorial claims but it has declared war on the U.S. against which it doesn’t.
Aide: That’s right, Mr. President.
Got to make some cash for those tax rises somehow!