I went for Andy B in the end. I signed myself up for Yvettes' campaign at the beginning, but her poor showing has kind of shown how far I have drifted outwards.
That said, I'm quite looking foreword to Jeremy winning (and I will also make money which helps)- I don't think Jezza will go down well, but I've been wrong before.
She's a much better politician than Kendall IMO - I don't agree with most of what she says (especially the rubbish about "paying down the debt"), but she atleast gives fluent and coherent answers. Unlike Kendall and her limited collection of contrived slogans which she parrots while clearly not having understood or thought deeply about the issues at all.
We'll be able to assess that when we see the deputy leadership results. I like her and she's good at enthusing a crowd, an important quality for deputy. The current members' mood for a change of style seems to be benefiting Stella more, but we'll see. Watson remains the favourite by sheer weight of organisation and contacts.
Incidentally, of the statements sent to all members by the four leadership contenders, I thought that Andy Burnham's pitch was the best-pitched (and for alphabetical reasons it comes first) - it appeals to the "we must change" theme as convincingly as Kendall, without the contentious elements. I'd already decided how I was voting, but I'd think he did himself no harm with the undecided voters. If members want to shift a bit left without going as far as Corbyn, I can see him coming second on the first ballot.
A wise decision in the end Tyson, all the polling has been clear that of the 4 Burnham has the highest rating with the public
Burnham is totally useless, a cardboard cutout would be better
Says something about the bowlers for England being dominant in this series when Cook is still not back to his very best, hasn't got a century, but is still the second highest run scorer for the team.
I went for Andy B in the end. I signed myself up for Yvettes' campaign at the beginning, but her poor showing has kind of shown how far I have drifted outwards.
That said, I'm quite looking foreword to Jeremy winning (and I will also make money which helps)- I don't think Jezza will go down well, but I've been wrong before.
She's a much better politician than Kendall IMO - I don't agree with most of what she says (especially the rubbish about "paying down the debt"), but she atleast gives fluent and coherent answers. Unlike Kendall and her limited collection of contrived slogans which she parrots while clearly not having understood or thought deeply about the issues at all.
We'll be able to assess that when we see the deputy leadership results. I like her and she's good at enthusing a crowd, an important quality for deputy. The current members' mood for a change of style seems to be benefiting Stella more, but we'll see. Watson remains the favourite by sheer weight of organisation and contacts.
Incidentally, of the statements sent to all members by the four leadership contenders, I thought that Andy Burnham's pitch was the best-pitched (and for alphabetical reasons it comes first) - it appeals to the "we must change" theme as convincingly as Kendall, without the contentious elements. I'd already decided how I was voting, but I'd think he did himself no harm with the undecided voters. If members want to shift a bit left without going as far as Corbyn, I can see him coming second on the first ballot.
A wise decision in the end Tyson, all the polling has been clear that of the 4 Burnham has the highest rating with the public
Burnham is totally useless, a cardboard cutout would be better
I said he polled the best of the 4, not that he was the greatest leader of all time!
The theory of when the field shrinks from 17 to 2-3 that Trump will lose has suffered a blow in the polls lately, not only he beats Bush in a head to head match up 50-42, his lead is increasing, and in a 3 way race with Bush and Carson he wins 44-29-25:
"Republican Donald Trump is pulling away from the pack in the race for the party's U.S. presidential nomination, widening his lead over his closest rivals in the past week, a Reuters/Ipsos poll showed on Friday.
Republican voters show no signs they are growing weary of the brash real estate mogul, who has dominated political headlines and the 17-strong Republican presidential field with his tough talk about immigration and insults directed at his political rivals. The candidates are vying to be nominated to represent their party in the November 2016 general election.
Nearly 32 percent of Republicans surveyed online said they backed Trump, up from 24 percent a week earlier, the opinion poll found. Trump had nearly double the support of his closest competitor, former Florida Governor Jeb Bush, who got 16 percent. Retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson was third at 8 percent."
I expect Trump to lead the polls all the way till Christmas.
My conclusion from this is that Jeb Bush and Scott Walker cannot win. Sure, Trump's ahead on name recognition but every GOP member with a room temperature IQ knows about Bush and Walker, so they have no room to improve. Rather, the eventual candidate is hidden among the back-markers. I've had a small wager on Kasich, but really it is too soon to be sure who will run on past the early front-runners as they drop back.
I wouldn't be surprised if each candidate cycled through their moment in the sun until the music stops playing in March. Then come that time it's... George Pataki!
George Pataki would actually be a good President, just a shame he has no chance of winning the primaries in today's GOP
I like George Pataki and I'd vote for him in the general if he were on the ticket. But as long as he keeps referring back to 9/11 instead of running as a moderate Republican, he has no chance.
You can argue that big tent Republicans don't really exist anymore but if they do, he'd have that perhaps-imaginary slice of the electorate locked up.
Huntsman was the closest in recent years and look how well he did, in today's Trump, Cruz, Santorum heavy GOP Jeb Bush and even Marco Rubio are as moderate as you will get
On-topic. Biden won't run against Clinton. If he wanted to do that, he'd have entered the race before Clinton sewed up the party establishment. On the other hand, if Clinton is forced to drop out, Biden is best placed to pick up the pieces. The mail server scandal hasn't derailed Hillary's campaign so far. Her health is holding up. Maybe keep an eye on Tim_B's anti-Clinton posts on pb to see if anything really does look fatal for her campaign, and back Biden then.
...The Bennite agenda was to put the Labour party under permanent control by the coalition of left-wing sectarian factions under his banner which had managed to seize control of decaying Labour party local institutions. All Labour office holders, ministers, MPs, councillors, would effectively take orders from them. He followed the long-established pernicious maxim of "no enemies on the Left" so that no one, however obnoxious, undemocratic or plain silly, was excluded from his coalition. He consistently defended the right of the Trotskyite Militant Tendency to use the Labour's party organisation, money and good name, ignoring the fact that Trotsky hated the Labour party all his life and urged his followers to join it only to subvert it.
I listened to Benn at meetings and never once heard him repudiate any stupid or extreme remark from a sympathizer on the floor. He had a characteristic response: "There's much to think about in what the comrade has just said and what we've got to do is to connect this with all the other struggles now going on, the nurses, the miners, [insert any major strikers], the Greenham women, and those in the wider world, for jobs, disarmament, against apartheid … [continues for several minutes until weirdo is forgotten.]"
It is terrible but true to say that Benn was 'soft on Communism' at this time, never willingly attacking any Soviet policy, constantly explaining away Soviet military might, including its nuclear arsenal, as a defensive response to legitimate fears. Benn never attacked any transgression by any 'progressive' regime or institution. I attended a meeting in the early 1980s in which he reported on his recent visit to Castro's Cuba. He dwelt on Castro's pursuit of human rights through education and health but never mentioned the regime's abuses of gay people or the mentally ill or dissidents, including people trying to organise free trade unions...
Mr. kle4, that seems a stretch to me, to be honest.
Mind you, the instructions aren't very difficult.
I regard it as a stretch as well, nevertheless, as you say the instructions to do it the proper way are not difficult, do failure to follow them opens up the possibility people can make such arguments that a single x is not clear, however plausibly.
...There may be dissatisfaction out there (when is there not?) and some real anger (the young are much given to anger) but the basis for this Corbynite uprising is not unhappiness with present conditions. It is the opposite: the complacency that a few decades of generally satisfactory, more-or-less competent government tends to induce.
The reason that Corbymania looks and sounds so adolescent is because it is: it is the kind of rebellion that can be indulged in by adolescents (of all ages) when their conditions are relatively secure and the grown-ups are looking a bit self-satisfied. There is a hard core of deadly serious old Leftists who have been waiting for their moment since 1974, and a well-organised tranche of trade unionists who have very specific special interests, such as the re-nationalisation of the railways, which would give them back the power to shut down the entire country’s rail transport with a single strike ballot.
But the vast majority of those who may be about to elect Britain’s own Hugo Chavez to run the main opposition party are just playing around. They are doing this because they can. Because on the scale of life’s domestic emergencies, there is not much going on, so why not mess about with some ideological experiment and have a joyous fling with the fellowship of rebellion?
Interesting indeed. The same autor, a little more than a year ago, wrote an article entitled "The people feel ignored – and they are angry"; "There will really be only two contestants in the next general election: the political class and the people. And by the “political class”, I mean the entire operation that runs, manipulates and communicates the activities of government. That conglomeration of politicians and their special interest lobbies, media followers and professional handlers is now more self-referring, inbred and profoundly detached from the reality of most people’s lives than at any time in a generation. " http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/ukip/10730787/The-people-feel-ignored-and-they-are-angry.html It's odd how people's minds work sometimes. In other words she wrote the opposite before the GE, a GE which proved her wrong. But then the last thing Janet Daley wanted was for Cameron to be proved right. She was praying for a Farage win and we saw how that worked out.
So if, and it's a huge if, Trump's numbers hold up until voting begins, is it enough to win in a three horse race? Yes. In a two horse race? No. So once March 15 is out of the way, I suspect if Trump is still around that there would be incredible pressure for those remaining candidates most centered within the party (Rubio, Bush, Walker, Kasich, Christie) to reduce to one candidate. Prognosticating so far out is a little foolish, but if forced to guess I'd say the voting would then split 50+% Establishment candidate, >35% Trump, >15% all others remaining.
That sounds right. But in America, unlike Britain, there's scope for a third party candidate. I wonder if Trump's 35ish% won't feel pretty frustrated if their man is beaten by a massing of the establishment behind one individual., giving him a good platform to proceed independently.
'Extreme manoeuvres' is relative. A loop need not pull too many g's if it is a long loop.
AIUI, it depends on many things, including the airframe's fatigue life. If the aircraft is properly maintained, and fatigue life has not been reached (and you do not mind the aerobatics eating up the remaining fatigue life), why not?
A much bigger problem might be giving pilots enough airtime to keep really familiar with the aircraft; although there are several Hunters still flying, so it would not be as bad as it could be for some types.
An 80-year-old relative who is a retired pilot was given a flight on a Spitfire as a birthday present (through one of the commercial operations still offering them) and said that he'd not looped the loop for decades and it was wonderful. I was pleased for him but a bit surprised that he was allowed to do it. I wonder if the regulations for those flying experiences need to be reviewed (though I'm speaking as someone who's just enjoyed one myself - I don't want to spoil anyone's fun).
She's a much better politician than Kendall IMO - I don't agree with most of what she says (especially the rubbish about "paying down the debt"), but she atleast gives fluent and coherent answers. Unlike Kendall and her limited collection of contrived slogans which she parrots while clearly not having understood or thought deeply about the issues at all.
You have said that deliberately haven't you, posted that picture deliberately haven't you. All with quite gratuitous intent, to intimidate sensitive souls like me. It will take me days now to get the image out of my mind. Ugh.
It has to be said that that video has a voyeur-cam feel to it.
Personally I have no time at all for this lady.
Then again perhaps as soothing therapy you could take in a video from The Mail for which the description goes -- ''GRAPHIC WARNING: When the girl begins to squeeze it, the boil doesn't explode like you might expect-instead the nauseating footage shows the pus coiling out like a worm writhing from the earth.''
I think not, m'dear.
The camera position on the above vid is far too low, imo.
It's Saturday, the sun is out, and I'm trying to avoid getting round to installing a gatepost.
Well you would get more coherent policies out of a gatepost.
Objective achieved, since it has now started raining.
Listening to the Media Show from a couple of weeks ago and silly celeb "stop the kiss and tell" injunctions about stories that are already all over the internet seem to be back.
We *still* live in a legal banana republic :-(.
Of course Ryan Giggs was ultimately unmasked in Parliament after almost everyone knew from the net he was the celebrity with the injunction anyway
For the avoidance of doubt, there *is* an Injunction out at present, so don't play games here, anyone, for the sake of OGH.
Is reporting on comments on an injunction made under parliamentary privilege in violation of that injunction?
No. That's how we got round the Alisher Usmanov one in 2007 when he engaged Schillings.
A UKIP chappie - one of the jailed ones iirc - read it out at the Europarl.
Strictly speaking they should be banned sine die since they now have 2 new improved (?) engines they would not otherwise have and the rules were much stricter last season. But this is F1 and they only need to start from the back just once.
PS But even if there was no legal issue I still wouldn't do it on soembody else's site as the Lawyers can cause aggro even if they are warbling out of their fundaments. ISPs tend to cave in to empty threats from posh people with letterheads.
That is why Guido is carefully protected in a tax haven which requires a bond up front from any complainant.
Mr. Calum, I wonder if that could create a hanging chad situation.
It does seem odd that a single X would not count as a valid ballot, given the intention is clear.
It could, perhaps, be interpreted as an ABC vote if it is a mere x to his name.
In Council elections a vote is generally counted if the intention is clear and I would imagine the ERS would do the same thing. Thus one 'X' would probably be put in a pile for dubious votes but ultimately accepted. Obviously in an Alternative Vote election two or more 'X' would be thrown out as there's no way to tell what the intention was. I saw a vote accepted in a Council election where a heart had been drawn rather than an 'X'.
Kezia Dugdale obviously doesn't follow PB.com as she is still on about making it a legal requirement for 50-50 Holyrood gender balance. To further upset the chaps she is moving the policy up a gear - now at least 50% of the candidates will be women:
" And she said that at least half of Scottish Labour’s new candidates for next year’s Holyrood election will be women. But she told the GMB event: “We need more than that. "
Mr. Calum, I wonder if that could create a hanging chad situation.
It does seem odd that a single X would not count as a valid ballot, given the intention is clear.
It could, perhaps, be interpreted as an ABC vote if it is a mere x to his name.
In Council elections a vote is generally counted if the intention is clear and I would imagine the ERS would do the same thing. Thus one 'X' would probably be put in a pile for dubious votes but ultimately accepted. Obviously in an Alternative Vote election two or more 'X' would be thrown out as there's no way to tell what the intention was. I saw a vote accepted in a Council election where a heart had been drawn rather than an 'X'.
And, infamously, at the GE a vote was allowed where a penis had been drawn. I am merely speculating, as I don't regard it as likely, but in an election where more than a single mark (or marks of equal prominence) are expected, I think there's greater scope to argue for the intent of a single mark to be unclear.
Harriet Harman actually said in May that "Anyone, provided they're on the electoral register, can become a registered supporter and have a vote" (10:33). No mention at all that you had to have voted Labour this year or that you can't have ever criticised them online:
Harriet Harman actually said in May that "Anyone, provided they're on the electoral register, can become a registered supporter and have a vote" (10:33). No mention at all that you had to have voted Labour this year or that you can't have ever criticised them online:
Somebody was filming the Hunter from a distance as it went thru its manouvres, and captured the whole thing. The footage has found it's way onto YouTube: you can find it here: h t t p s : / / w w w .youtube.com/watch?v=vw75lBTZO2E . In deference to those posters here who (entirely understandably) find this distasteful, I have spaced out the link so it won't autodisplay. Reassemble the link if you want to see it.
I listened to AQ today, and AA, I find it hard to believe Corbynmania,according to the Beeb, is for real,am I so far behind the curve? Yes we all want better wages ,better public services etc, but barely a word about how to pay for it, .do we really want to spend what limited resources we have on renationalisation. Yes I am conservative, but I am staggered that a large number of people still want to follow a 1970s Messiah. Has Labour gone mad?
Amazing level of silence from CCHQ re this debacle from Labour...they must be wetting themselves laughing..whoever wins is a total loser..
Lets hope the Tories return the favour after the EU referendum - which candidates could Corbynise the Tory leadership campaign ? - Liam Fox would get my vote as he's Scottish !!
Something has just occurred to me - in 2010 under the electoral college members' votes counted for one third of the total, while this time under OMOV they still count for one third of the total.
Somebody was filming the Hunter from a distance as it went thru its manouvres, and captured the whole thing. The footage has found it's way onto YouTube: you can find it here: h t t p s : / / w w w .youtube.com/watch?v=vw75lBTZO2E . In deference to those posters here who (entirely understandably) find this distasteful, I have spaced out the link so it won't autodisplay. Reassemble the link if you want to see it.
My worst nightmare. I recently went to the RAF Fairford airshow, to pay my respects to the last Vulcan flying, it will be retired this year. I was always on edge hoping the pilots would all be OK, and admiring their skills, it is a delicate balance, showing the limits of the aircraft, but no more. Feel for the family.
Yet more on Kids company.... Not as helpful as they made out....
Kids Company 'inflated list of clients by 15,500': Failed charity claimed to be helping 16,000 high risk people but the real number may be lower than 500
The latest allegations emerged just hours after the Charity Commission launched a probe into the organisation, amid reports that taxpayers will lose £1.2million following its collapse.
Kezia Dugdale obviously doesn't follow PB.com as she is still on about making it a legal requirement for 50-50 Holyrood gender balance. To further upset the chaps she is moving the policy up a gear - now at least 50% of the candidates will be women:
" And she said that at least half of Scottish Labour’s new candidates for next year’s Holyrood election will be women. But she told the GMB event: “We need more than that. "
They need more than half of them to be women?
And they have the cheek to say this is about equality.
Kezia Dugdale obviously doesn't follow PB.com as she is still on about making it a legal requirement for 50-50 Holyrood gender balance. To further upset the chaps she is moving the policy up a gear - now at least 50% of the candidates will be women:
" And she said that at least half of Scottish Labour’s new candidates for next year’s Holyrood election will be women. But she told the GMB event: “We need more than that. "
They need more than half of them to be women?
And they have the cheek to say this is about equality.
Read it carefully - New Candidates, not all candidates. Incumbents don't count.
Somebody was filming the Hunter from a distance as it went thru its manouvres, and captured the whole thing. The footage has found it's way onto YouTube: you can find it here: h t t p s : / / w w w .youtube.com/watch?v=vw75lBTZO2E . In deference to those posters here who (entirely understandably) find this distasteful, I have spaced out the link so it won't autodisplay. Reassemble the link if you want to see it.
My worst nightmare. I recently went to the RAF Fairford airshow, to pay my respects to the last Vulcan flying, it will be retired this year. I was always on edge hoping the pilots would all be OK, and admiring their skills, it is a delicate balance, showing the limits of the aircraft, but no more. Feel for the family.
I've seen enough Vulcans not to feel the need (of course I'll regret saying that when XH558 is grounded and it's too late) but my immediate thought is that I thought, post Farnborough and Ramstein, that we wouldn't see things like this again...and now we have. Damn, damn...
Have you even researched how the Sri Lankan military dealt with the Tamil population?
Our view of history is often viewed through the prism of the victors. If the Nazi's had been victorious in WW2 doubtless there would have been different view of the partisans, or the Jews, or anyone who chose to support them.
The final weeks of the Tamil conflict witnessed some of the most atrocious war crimes in the last 100 years.
Have you even researched how the Sri Lankan military dealt with the Tamil population?
Our view of history is often viewed through the prism of the victors. If the Nazi's had been victorious in WW2 doubtless there would have been different view of the partisans, or the Jews, or anyone who chose to support them.
The final weeks of the Tamil conflict witnessed some of the most atrocious war crimes in the last 100 years.
Says a man who counts Mahinda Rajapaksa as one of his 'friends'... Does anyone take this slimy Tory tw*t seriously??
Don't tell me Tamil Terrorists were another lot of Corbyn's friends.
It is the nature of war to become more extreme as time goes on. War turns the best of men into killers, and the slope is quite a slippery one. The Tamils invented suicide explosive vests, and certainly performed acts of terrorism.
Wars sometimes fizzle out, sometimes they end with negotiations, sometimes they end by one side obliterating the other and preventing them from rising again.
The same RAF that fought the Battle of Britain ended the war by firebombing a Dresden filled with refugees. It is the nature of war.
Somebody was filming the Hunter from a distance as it went thru its manouvres, and captured the whole thing. The footage has found it's way onto YouTube: you can find it here: h t t p s : / / w w w .youtube.com/watch?v=vw75lBTZO2E . In deference to those posters here who (entirely understandably) find this distasteful, I have spaced out the link so it won't autodisplay. Reassemble the link if you want to see it.
My worst nightmare. I recently went to the RAF Fairford airshow, to pay my respects to the last Vulcan flying, it will be retired this year. I was always on edge hoping the pilots would all be OK, and admiring their skills, it is a delicate balance, showing the limits of the aircraft, but no more. Feel for the family.
I've seen enough Vulcans not to feel the need (of course I'll regret saying that when XH558 is grounded and it's too late) but my immediate thought is that I thought, post Farnborough and Ramstein, that we wouldn't see things like this again...and now we have. Damn, damn...
Mr. Code, not wishing to make light of this afternoon's tragedy but as long as there are airshows there are going to be accidents. Throwing aeroplanes around at low level is inherently dangerous and every now and then there will be a technical malfunction or a pilot error that will occasion a tragedy. The most surprising thing is that there are not more of them, a tribute perhaps to the immense skill and professionalism of the pilots and those who maintain the aircraft.
Kezia Dugdale obviously doesn't follow PB.com as she is still on about making it a legal requirement for 50-50 Holyrood gender balance. To further upset the chaps she is moving the policy up a gear - now at least 50% of the candidates will be women:
" And she said that at least half of Scottish Labour’s new candidates for next year’s Holyrood election will be women. But she told the GMB event: “We need more than that. "
They need more than half of them to be women?
And they have the cheek to say this is about equality.
Why Kezia is devoting so much time to perusing this policy is puzzling - Holyrood has a female FM, a gender balanced cabinet, 3 female party leaders out of 5 - outside of Holyrood my local health board is 2/3rds female and my local council is led by Johanna Boyd, who was the youngest ever Council leader in Scotland and is a name to watch for the future.
Somebody was filming the Hunter from a distance as it went thru its manouvres, and captured the whole thing. The footage has found it's way onto YouTube: you can find it here: h t t p s : / / w w w .youtube.com/watch?v=vw75lBTZO2E . In deference to those posters here who (entirely understandably) find this distasteful, I have spaced out the link so it won't autodisplay. Reassemble the link if you want to see it.
My worst nightmare. I recently went to the RAF Fairford airshow, to pay my respects to the last Vulcan flying, it will be retired this year. I was always on edge hoping the pilots would all be OK, and admiring their skills, it is a delicate balance, showing the limits of the aircraft, but no more. Feel for the family.
I've seen enough Vulcans not to feel the need (of course I'll regret saying that when XH558 is grounded and it's too late) but my immediate thought is that I thought, post Farnborough and Ramstein, that we wouldn't see things like this again...and now we have. Damn, damn...
Whenever I hear about the Vulcan, I'm reminded of the Hawker Hunter, the E.E. Lightning, the Canberra, the Blackburn Buccaneer, the TSR2.......but above all the Vulcan reminds me of Thunderball.
Kezia Dugdale obviously doesn't follow PB.com as she is still on about making it a legal requirement for 50-50 Holyrood gender balance. To further upset the chaps she is moving the policy up a gear - now at least 50% of the candidates will be women:
" And she said that at least half of Scottish Labour’s new candidates for next year’s Holyrood election will be women. But she told the GMB event: “We need more than that. "
They need more than half of them to be women?
And they have the cheek to say this is about equality.
Why Kezia is devoting so much time to perusing this policy is puzzling - Holyrood has a female FM, a gender balanced cabinet, 3 female party leaders out of 5 - outside of Holyrood my local health board is 2/3rds female and my local council is led by Johanna Boyd, who was the youngest ever Council leader in Scotland and is a name to watch for the future.
Maybe because they have no policy ideas, so are just banging on about this?
Somebody was filming the Hunter from a distance as it went thru its manouvres, and captured the whole thing. The footage has found it's way onto YouTube: you can find it here: h t t p s : / / w w w .youtube.com/watch?v=vw75lBTZO2E . In deference to those posters here who (entirely understandably) find this distasteful, I have spaced out the link so it won't autodisplay. Reassemble the link if you want to see it.
My worst nightmare. I recently went to the RAF Fairford airshow, to pay my respects to the last Vulcan flying, it will be retired this year. I was always on edge hoping the pilots would all be OK, and admiring their skills, it is a delicate balance, showing the limits of the aircraft, but no more. Feel for the family.
I've seen enough Vulcans not to feel the need (of course I'll regret saying that when XH558 is grounded and it's too late) but my immediate thought is that I thought, post Farnborough and Ramstein, that we wouldn't see things like this again...and now we have. Damn, damn...
Mr. Code, not wishing to make light of this afternoon's tragedy but as long as there are airshows there are going to be accidents. Throwing aeroplanes around at low level is inherently dangerous and every now and then there will be a technical malfunction or a pilot error that will occasion a tragedy. The most surprising thing is that there are not more of them, a tribute perhaps to the immense skill and professionalism of the pilots and those who maintain the aircraft.
The Vulcan used to fly from Rutland and I remember watching it stuttering to climb at low altitude over an East Leics village, before picking up power and flying away. Old planes take a lot of maintenence, and that is an expensive business.
Quite. The incendiary bombing of Dresden, and Berlin- undertaken only to kill the innocent in massive numbers. The use of the A bomb in Japan,. The incendiary bombing of Tokyo. The murder of tens of thousands of innocent civilians, many of whom (women and children) died in the worst kind of agony. The perpetrators of these great war crimes, the pilots, the planners, the politicians deserved to be hung in the same way that we hung the Nazis. Murderers and killers.
History though is written in the name of the victors who with it claim the moral spoils.
Have you even researched how the Sri Lankan military dealt with the Tamil population?
Our view of history is often viewed through the prism of the victors. If the Nazi's had been victorious in WW2 doubtless there would have been different view of the partisans, or the Jews, or anyone who chose to support them.
The final weeks of the Tamil conflict witnessed some of the most atrocious war crimes in the last 100 years.
Says a man who counts Mahinda Rajapaksa as one of his 'friends'... Does anyone take this slimy Tory tw*t seriously??
Don't tell me Tamil Terrorists were another lot of Corbyn's friends.
It is the nature of war to become more extreme as time goes on. War turns the best of men into killers, and the slope is quite a slippery one. The Tamils invented suicide explosive vests, and certainly performed acts of terrorism.
Wars sometimes fizzle out, sometimes they end with negotiations, sometimes they end by one side obliterating the other and preventing them from rising again.
The same RAF that fought the Battle of Britain ended the war by firebombing a Dresden filled with refugees. It is the nature of war.
Somebody was filming the Hunter from a distance as it went thru its manouvres, and captured the whole thing. The footage has found it's way onto YouTube: you can find it here: h t t p s : / / w w w .youtube.com/watch?v=vw75lBTZO2E . In deference to those posters here who (entirely understandably) find this distasteful, I have spaced out the link so it won't autodisplay. Reassemble the link if you want to see it.
My worst nightmare. I recently went to the RAF Fairford airshow, to pay my respects to the last Vulcan flying, it will be retired this year. I was always on edge hoping the pilots would all be OK, and admiring their skills, it is a delicate balance, showing the limits of the aircraft, but no more. Feel for the family.
I've seen enough Vulcans not to feel the need (of course I'll regret saying that when XH558 is grounded and it's too late) but my immediate thought is that I thought, post Farnborough and Ramstein, that we wouldn't see things like this again...and now we have. Damn, damn...
Yes of course you will regret, the sight and sound of the Vulcan in full flow is amazing. i often think how must the Argentinians thought, when the impossible happened, they looked out of their windows and saw the incoming Vulcans, and thought Oh shit. It was a turning point. Probably not very effective from a military point of view, but psychologically, it changed everything.
Burnham’s campaign shared data with the Observer that suggested some of those who had previously committed to voting for Corbyn were now recognising the dangers and either opting for the shadow health secretary or describing themselves as “don’t knows”.
Somebody was filming the Hunter from a distance as it went thru its manouvres, and captured the whole thing. The footage has found it's way onto YouTube: you can find it here: h t t p s : / / w w w .youtube.com/watch?v=vw75lBTZO2E . In deference to those posters here who (entirely understandably) find this distasteful, I have spaced out the link so it won't autodisplay. Reassemble the link if you want to see it.
My worst nightmare. I recently went to the RAF Fairford airshow, to pay my respects to the last Vulcan flying, it will be retired this year. I was always on edge hoping the pilots would all be OK, and admiring their skills, it is a delicate balance, showing the limits of the aircraft, but no more. Feel for the family.
I've seen enough Vulcans not to feel the need (of course I'll regret saying that when XH558 is grounded and it's too late) but my immediate thought is that I thought, post Farnborough and Ramstein, that we wouldn't see things like this again...and now we have. Damn, damn...
Mr. Code, not wishing to make light of this afternoon's tragedy but as long as there are airshows there are going to be accidents. Throwing aeroplanes around at low level is inherently dangerous and every now and then there will be a technical malfunction or a pilot error that will occasion a tragedy. The most surprising thing is that there are not more of them, a tribute perhaps to the immense skill and professionalism of the pilots and those who maintain the aircraft.
The Vulcan used to fly from Rutland and I remember watching it stuttering to climb at low altitude over an East Leics village, before picking up power and flying away. Old planes take a lot of maintenence, and that is an expensive business.
All aeroplanes need a lot of maintenance if they are to fly safely, but I take your point, Doc.
I am fairly sure, and Mr. Code will probably know the answer to this, that the take off and climb of the Vulcan you used to witness had nothing to do with that aeroplanes age but was in fact standard for the type.
Somebody was filming the Hunter from a distance as it went thru its manouvres, and captured the whole thing. The footage has found it's way onto YouTube: you can find it here: h t t p s : / / w w w .youtube.com/watch?v=vw75lBTZO2E . In deference to those posters here who (entirely understandably) find this distasteful, I have spaced out the link so it won't autodisplay. Reassemble the link if you want to see it.
My worst nightmare. I recently went to the RAF Fairford airshow, to pay my respects to the last Vulcan flying, it will be retired this year. I was always on edge hoping the pilots would all be OK, and admiring their skills, it is a delicate balance, showing the limits of the aircraft, but no more. Feel for the family.
I've seen enough Vulcans not to feel the need (of course I'll regret saying that when XH558 is grounded and it's too late) but my immediate thought is that I thought, post Farnborough and Ramstein, that we wouldn't see things like this again...and now we have. Damn, damn...
Mr. Code, not wishing to make light of this afternoon's tragedy but as long as there are airshows there are going to be accidents. Throwing aeroplanes around at low level is inherently dangerous and every now and then there will be a technical malfunction or a pilot error that will occasion a tragedy. The most surprising thing is that there are not more of them, a tribute perhaps to the immense skill and professionalism of the pilots and those who maintain the aircraft.
The Vulcan used to fly from Rutland and I remember watching it stuttering to climb at low altitude over an East Leics village, before picking up power and flying away. Old planes take a lot of maintenence, and that is an expensive business.
True, but I suspect the Apache helicopter is even more expensive to maintain.
Quite. The incendiary bombing of Dresden, and Berlin- undertaken only to kill the innocent in massive numbers. The use of the A bomb in Japan,. The incendiary bombing of Tokyo. The murder of tens of thousands of innocent civilians, many of whom (women and children) died in the worst kind of agony. The perpetrators of these great war crimes, the pilots, the planners, the politicians deserved to be hung in the same way that we hung the Nazis. Murderers and killers.
History though is written in the name of the victors who with it claim the moral spoils.
Have you even researched how the Sri Lankan military dealt with the Tamil population?
Our view of history is often viewed through the prism of the victors. If the Nazi's had been victorious in WW2 doubtless there would have been different view of the partisans, or the Jews, or anyone who chose to support them.
The final weeks of the Tamil conflict witnessed some of the most atrocious war crimes in the last 100 years.
Says a man who counts Mahinda Rajapaksa as one of his 'friends'... Does anyone take this slimy Tory tw*t seriously??
Don't tell me Tamil Terrorists were another lot of Corbyn's friends.
It is the nature of war to become more extreme as time goes on. War turns the best of men into killers, and the slope is quite a slippery one. The Tamils invented suicide explosive vests, and certainly performed acts of terrorism.
Wars sometimes fizzle out, sometimes they end with negotiations, sometimes they end by one side obliterating the other and preventing them from rising again.
The same RAF that fought the Battle of Britain ended the war by firebombing a Dresden filled with refugees. It is the nature of war.
What, in your view, was the difference in WWII between an 19 year old working in a factory or office and a 19 year old who had been conscripted into the armed forces and given a weapon? One appears to have been an innocent civilian whose death, agonising or otherwise, was a war crime and the other was a what exactly?
I ask purely in the spirit of seeking enlightenment as in a time of total war with conscripted armies the philosophy of who was a combatant and who was a civilian is unclear to me.
I have vivid memories of Vulcans flying over the downs in the 1960s. The most impressive aeroplane in the air that I have ever seen, way ahead of that very large needle called Concorde.
Frankly I am amazed to find one was still flying.
The Sri Lanka one is one of those awkward ones for me. It is awkward because it is obvious that @Tyson is right and there were horrible war crimes. On the other hand the sheer viciousness and comprehensive nature of the victory has meant the end to a savage civil war that killed tens of thousands over many years and would have undoubtedly have killed many, many more if any of the Tamil Tigers been allowed to surrender or simply been taken into custody.
Somebody was filming the Hunter from a distance as it went thru its manouvres, and captured the whole thing. The footage has found it's way onto YouTube: you can find it here: h t t p s : / / w w w .youtube.com/watch?v=vw75lBTZO2E . In deference to those posters here who (entirely understandably) find this distasteful, I have spaced out the link so it won't autodisplay. Reassemble the link if you want to see it.
My worst nightmare. I recently went to the RAF Fairford airshow, to pay my respects to the last Vulcan flying, it will be retired this year. I was always on edge hoping the pilots would all be OK, and admiring their skills, it is a delicate balance, showing the limits of the aircraft, but no more. Feel for the family.
I've seen enough Vulcans not to feel the need (of course I'll regret saying that when XH558 is grounded and it's too late) but my immediate thought is that I thought, post Farnborough and Ramstein, that we wouldn't see things like this again...and now we have. Damn, damn...
Whenever I hear about the Vulcan, I'm reminded of the Hawker Hunter, the E.E. Lightning, the Canberra, the Blackburn Buccaneer, the TSR2.......but above all the Vulcan reminds me of Thunderball.
God don't get me started, I'll start banging on about the Buccaneer's rotary bombbay, the Lightning's amazing ability to fly very fast to intercept without actually carrying enough weaponry to make the trip worthwhile (and the fact that to maintain the top engine you had to take the bottom one out), Tony Benn ordering the burning of the TSR2 plans in the carpark, the tendency of the Tornado to fly into sanddunes ("We can do airfield denial! Er, no we can't. Whoops"), why the hell can't they get Merlins to fly in Afghanistan, what do you mean you bought Chinooks without the software, why did we buy the A400M Grizzly/Atlas/Whatever when we could have gotten Super Herculeses, can we have some more Globemasters please, are we ever going to get F35's or is it just quicker to buy the Harriers back from the Marine Corps, why are we still buying planes with pilots at all...
Somebody was filming the Hunter from a distance as it went thru its manouvres, and captured the whole thing. The footage has found it's way onto YouTube: you can find it here: h t t p s : / / w w w .youtube.com/watch?v=vw75lBTZO2E . In deference to those posters here who (entirely understandably) find this distasteful, I have spaced out the link so it won't autodisplay. Reassemble the link if you want to see it.
My worst nightmare. I recently went to the RAF Fairford airshow, to pay my respects to the last Vulcan flying, it will be retired this year. I was always on edge hoping the pilots would all be OK, and admiring their skills, it is a delicate balance, showing the limits of the aircraft, but no more. Feel for the family.
I've seen enough Vulcans not to feel the need (of course I'll regret saying that when XH558 is grounded and it's too late) but my immediate thought is that I thought, post Farnborough and Ramstein, that we wouldn't see things like this again...and now we have. Damn, damn...
Yes of course you will regret, the sight and sound of the Vulcan in full flow is amazing. i often think how must the Argentinians thought, when the impossible happened, they looked out of their windows and saw the incoming Vulcans, and thought Oh shit. It was a turning point. Probably not very effective from a military point of view, but psychologically, it changed everything.
I very much doubt they saw or heard the Vulcans - they would have noticed the 20 bombs as they exploded I suppose. I saw the Vulcan last month and also saw the Red Arrows low and at very close quarters as well. For gravity defying aerobatics its the Chinooks you need to watch. I should also add that a piston engined aerobatic plane was doing 180deg vertical stall turns right over our heads on the same day. In order to experience all this you had to stand on the perimeter next to the sign saying ''You Risk Death''.
Somebody was filming the Hunter from a distance as it went thru its manouvres, and captured the whole thing. The footage has found it's way onto YouTube: you can find it here: h t t p s : / / w w w .youtube.com/watch?v=vw75lBTZO2E . In deference to those posters here who (entirely understandably) find this distasteful, I have spaced out the link so it won't autodisplay. Reassemble the link if you want to see it.
My worst nightmare. I recently went to the RAF Fairford airshow, to pay my respects to the last Vulcan flying, it will be retired this year. I was always on edge hoping the pilots would all be OK, and admiring their skills, it is a delicate balance, showing the limits of the aircraft, but no more. Feel for the family.
I've seen enough Vulcans not to feel the need (of course I'll regret saying that when XH558 is grounded and it's too late) but my immediate thought is that I thought, post Farnborough and Ramstein, that we wouldn't see things like this again...and now we have. Damn, damn...
Whenever I hear about the Vulcan, I'm reminded of the Hawker Hunter, the E.E. Lightning, the Canberra, the Blackburn Buccaneer, the TSR2.......but above all the Vulcan reminds me of Thunderball.
God don't get me started, I'll start banging on about the Buccaneer's rotary bombbay, the Lightning's amazing ability to fly very fast to intercept without actually carrying enough weaponry to make the trip worthwhile (and the fact that to maintain the top engine you had to take the bottom one out), Tony Benn ordering the burning of the TSR2 plans in the carpark, the tendency of the Tornado to fly into sanddunes ("We can do airfield denial! Er, no we can't. Whoops"), why the hell can't they get Merlins to fly in Afghanistan, what do you mean you bought Chinooks without the software, why did we buy the A400M Grizzly/Atlas/Whatever when we could have gotten Super Herculeses, can we have some more Globemasters please, are we ever going to get F35's or is it just quicker to buy the Harriers back from the Marine Corps, why are we still buying planes with pilots at all...
...don't mention AEW Nimrods. Just...don't.
A real cri de cœur there, Mr. Code. If we could ever get you and Andy Cooke, gent sometimes of this parish, is a pub together we could sell tickets.
Anyway in light of your sensibilities, I promise I will never again make any comment about Crabs and Crab Air or make the obviously sensible suggestion that when the F35s do come they all be assigned to the FAA.
Got the weirdest letter from the Scottish Conservatives today. It doesn't in any way exhort me to vote Conservative - the only thing it encourages me to do is to ensure that the SNP be the best government possible.
Somebody was filming the Hunter from a distance as it went thru its manouvres, and captured the whole thing. The footage has found it's way onto YouTube: you can find it here: h t t p s : / / w w w .youtube.com/watch?v=vw75lBTZO2E . In deference to those posters here who (entirely understandably) find this distasteful, I have spaced out the link so it won't autodisplay. Reassemble the link if you want to see it.
My worst nightmare. I recently went to the RAF Fairford airshow, to pay my respects to the last Vulcan flying, it will be retired this year. I was always on edge hoping the pilots would all be OK, and admiring their skills, it is a delicate balance, showing the limits of the aircraft, but no more. Feel for the family.
I've seen enough Vulcans not to feel the need (of course I'll regret saying that when XH558 is grounded and it's too late) but my immediate thought is that I thought, post Farnborough and Ramstein, that we wouldn't see things like this again...and now we have. Damn, damn...
Mr. Code, not wishing to make light of this afternoon's tragedy but as long as there are airshows there are going to be accidents. Throwing aeroplanes around at low level is inherently dangerous and every now and then there will be a technical malfunction or a pilot error that will occasion a tragedy. The most surprising thing is that there are not more of them, a tribute perhaps to the immense skill and professionalism of the pilots and those who maintain the aircraft.
The Vulcan used to fly from Rutland and I remember watching it stuttering to climb at low altitude over an East Leics village, before picking up power and flying away. Old planes take a lot of maintenence, and that is an expensive business.
All aeroplanes need a lot of maintenance if they are to fly safely, but I take your point, Doc.
I am fairly sure, and Mr. Code will probably know the answer to this, that the take off and climb of the Vulcan you used to witness had nothing to do with that aeroplanes age but was in fact standard for the type.
It was far lower than it should have been, and about 20 miles from Cottesmore. I am fairly sure the manoevre was not a planned one. My Dad flew in the RAF and after he left always had an interest in aircraft, indeed he was at Shoreham today. Old planes are magnificent.
Got the weirdest letter from the Scottish Conservatives today. It doesn't in any way exhort me to vote Conservative - the only thing it encourages me to do is to ensure that the SNP be the best government possible.
If the Nazis had won (a very bad thing of course)- there surely would have been some kind of mass trial to take account of Dresden and Berlin and the incendiary fire bombing and slaughter of tens of thousands of civilians. Doubtless images would have been presented, testimonies taken, the full force of the horror depicted. What happened here would have been presented as a war crime.
I doubt very much any one of those people implicated and tried for these horrors would have had much of a defence and would not have not been too surprised at being executed. Many would probably have thought they deserved it too.
Quite. The incendiary bombing of Dresden, and Berlin- undertaken only to kill the innocent in massive numbers. The use of the A bomb in Japan,. The incendiary bombing of Tokyo. The murder of tens of thousands of innocent civilians, many of whom (women and children) died in the worst kind of agony. The perpetrators of these great war crimes, the pilots, the planners, the politicians deserved to be hung in the same way that we hung the Nazis. Murderers and killers.
History though is written in the name of the victors who with it claim the moral spoils.
It is the nature of war to become more extreme as time goes on. War turns the best of men into killers, and the slope is quite a slippery one. The Tamils invented suicide explosive vests, and certainly performed acts of terrorism.
Wars sometimes fizzle out, sometimes they end with negotiations, sometimes they end by one side obliterating the other and preventing them from rising again.
The same RAF that fought the Battle of Britain ended the war by firebombing a Dresden filled with refugees. It is the nature of war.
What, in your view, was the difference in WWII between an 19 year old working in a factory or office and a 19 year old who had been conscripted into the armed forces and given a weapon? One appears to have been an innocent civilian whose death, agonising or otherwise, was a war crime and the other was a what exactly?
I ask purely in the spirit of seeking enlightenment as in a time of total war with conscripted armies the philosophy of who was a combatant and who was a civilian is unclear to me.
Sunday Times - Betty Boothroyd warns Labour is "galloping towards the precipice" if Corbyn becomes leader
Most of the votes are probably cast already, but these warnings from the great and good do make me think that there is value in Shadsys 5/2 on Corbyn 40-50% on first prefs.
Somebody was filming the Hunter from a distance as it went thru its manouvres, and captured the whole thing. The footage has found it's way onto YouTube: you can find it here: h t t p s : / / w w w .youtube.com/watch?v=vw75lBTZO2E . In deference to those posters here who (entirely understandably) find this distasteful, I have spaced out the link so it won't autodisplay. Reassemble the link if you want to see it.
My worst nightmare. I recently went to the RAF Fairford airshow, to pay my respects to the last Vulcan flying, it will be retired this year. I was always on edge hoping the pilots would all be OK, and admiring their skills, it is a delicate balance, showing the limits of the aircraft, but no more. Feel for the family.
I've seen enough Vulcans not to feel the need (of course I'll regret saying that when XH558 is grounded and it's too late) but my immediate thought is that I thought, post Farnborough and Ramstein, that we wouldn't see things like this again...and now we have. Damn, damn...
Whenever I hear about the Vulcan, I'm reminded of the Hawker Hunter, the E.E. Lightning, the Canberra, the Blackburn Buccaneer, the TSR2.......but above all the Vulcan reminds me of Thunderball.
God don't get me started, I'll start banging on about the Buccaneer's rotary bombbay, the Lightning's amazing ability to fly very fast to intercept without actually carrying enough weaponry to make the trip worthwhile (and the fact that to maintain the top engine you had to take the bottom one out), Tony Benn ordering the burning of the TSR2 plans in the carpark, the tendency of the Tornado to fly into sanddunes ("We can do airfield denial! Er, no we can't. Whoops"), why the hell can't they get Merlins to fly in Afghanistan, what do you mean you bought Chinooks without the software, why did we buy the A400M Grizzly/Atlas/Whatever when we could have gotten Super Herculeses, can we have some more Globemasters please, are we ever going to get F35's or is it just quicker to buy the Harriers back from the Marine Corps, why are we still buying planes with pilots at all...
...don't mention AEW Nimrods. Just...don't.
Speaking of Nimrods.....
When I was at boarding school in the UK in the 60s, and my folks lived in the Canary Islands, I was a regular flyer on Iberia and BEA.
Flying to or from Madrid to the UK, the plane BEA would use was the Comet. I still remember hearing the windows creak while in flight. At the time I didn't know the history of the plane.
'Extreme manoeuvres' is relative. A loop need not pull too many g's if it is a long loop.
AIUI, it depends on many things, including the airframe's fatigue life. If the aircraft is properly maintained, and fatigue life has not been reached (and you do not mind the aerobatics eating up the remaining fatigue life), why not?
A much bigger problem might be giving pilots enough airtime to keep really familiar with the aircraft; although there are several Hunters still flying, so it would not be as bad as it could be for some types.
An 80-year-old relative who is a retired pilot was given a flight on a Spitfire as a birthday present (through one of the commercial operations still offering them) and said that he'd not looped the loop for decades and it was wonderful. I was pleased for him but a bit surprised that he was allowed to do it. I wonder if the regulations for those flying experiences need to be reviewed (though I'm speaking as someone who's just enjoyed one myself - I don't want to spoil anyone's fun).
That's interesting. But are you sure he was actually 'flying' the plane? I would have thought that such experiences are given in a two seater, even if there are dual controls. At least one Spitfire at Duxford was controversially rebuilt as a two-seater for this reason ...
In the same way, steam railway footplate experiences are always given by experienced crews (or should be).
They could climb at a reasonable rate under full power. The party piece I recall is going along the length of the biggin hill runway no more than 50 feet high at a 50 or 60 degree attitude, pulling full power at the end of the runway and very noisily blasting it's way into a step climb. Was much too close, having landed ten minutes earlier.
Only one went to Argentina as far as I know. I had a mate who crashed one, which he never got over, on a psychological level.
Somebody was filming the Hunter from a distance as it went thru its manouvres, and captured the whole thing. The footage has found it's way onto YouTube: you can find it here: h t t p s : / / w w w .youtube.com/watch?v=vw75lBTZO2E . In deference to those posters here who (entirely understandably) find this distasteful, I have spaced out the link so it won't autodisplay. Reassemble the link if you want to see it.
My worst nightmare. I recently went to the RAF Fairford airshow, to pay my respects to the last Vulcan flying, it will be retired this year. I was always on edge hoping the pilots would all be OK, and admiring their skills, it is a delicate balance, showing the limits of the aircraft, but no more. Feel for the family.
I've seen enough Vulcans not to feel the need (of course I'll regret saying that when XH558 is grounded and it's too late) but my immediate thought is that I thought, post Farnborough and Ramstein, that we wouldn't see things like this again...and now we have. Damn, damn...
Yes of course you will regret, the sight and sound of the Vulcan in full flow is amazing. i often think how must the Argentinians thought, when the impossible happened, they looked out of their windows and saw the incoming Vulcans, and thought Oh shit. It was a turning point. Probably not very effective from a military point of view, but psychologically, it changed everything.
I very much doubt they saw or heard the Vulcans - they would have noticed the 20 bombs as they exploded I suppose. I saw the Vulcan last month and also saw the Red Arrows low and at very close quarters as well. For gravity defying aerobatics its the Chinooks you need to watch. I should also add that a piston engined aerobatic plane was doing 180deg vertical stall turns right over our heads on the same day. In order to experience all this you had to stand on the perimeter next to the sign saying ''You Risk Death''.
Yes I saw a Chinook doing the impossible,almost vertical up, followed by almost vertical down. Went on board one later, what a huge space. Amazed at the Apache doing a loop, helicopters are not supposed to do that.
Got the weirdest letter from the Scottish Conservatives today. It doesn't in any way exhort me to vote Conservative - the only thing it encourages me to do is to ensure that the SNP be the best government possible.
Then there's a survey on the back.
What did it say?
The survey was a boring details harvesting exercise asking if you agreed or disagreed with a bunch of feel good policies that anyone from any party would agree were a good thing (except for the one where the promised to use the new Scotland Bill tax powers to cut taxes).
They asked Voting Intention for Holyrood and had Conservative , Probably Conservative , Don't Know (If Don't Know have you ever voted Conservative Before) a some of the options
If you're not already laying England for the Rugby world cup, you should be.
Deeply disappointing performance by Les Rosbifs against Les Grenouilles
Wait till the refs have to make decisions in-front of a home crowd during the tournament. It was enough to get NZ over the line in 2011 despite being distinctly inferior to France in the final.
Somebody was filming the Hunter from a distance as it went thru its manouvres, and captured the whole thing. The footage has found it's way onto YouTube: you can find it here: h t t p s : / / w w w .youtube.com/watch?v=vw75lBTZO2E . In deference to those posters here who (entirely understandably) find this distasteful, I have spaced out the link so it won't autodisplay. Reassemble the link if you want to see it.
My worst nightmare. I recently went to the RAF Fairford airshow, to pay my respects to the last Vulcan flying, it will be retired this year. I was always on edge hoping the pilots would all be OK, and admiring their skills, it is a delicate balance, showing the limits of the aircraft, but no more. Feel for the family.
I've seen enough Vulcans not to feel the need (of course I'll regret saying that when XH558 is grounded and it's too late) but my immediate thought is that I thought, post Farnborough and Ramstein, that we wouldn't see things like this again...and now we have. Damn, damn...
Whenever I hear about the Vulcan, I'm reminded of the Hawker Hunter, the E.E. Lightning, the Canberra, the Blackburn Buccaneer, the TSR2.......but above all the Vulcan reminds me of Thunderball.
God don't get me started, I'll start banging on about the Buccaneer's rotary bombbay, the Lightning's amazing ability to fly very fast to intercept without actually carrying enough weaponry to make the trip worthwhile (and the fact that to maintain the top engine you had to take the bottom one out), Tony Benn ordering the burning of the TSR2 plans in the carpark, the tendency of the Tornado to fly into sanddunes ("We can do airfield denial! Er, no we can't. Whoops"), why the hell can't they get Merlins to fly in Afghanistan, what do you mean you bought Chinooks without the software, why did we buy the A400M Grizzly/Atlas/Whatever when we could have gotten Super Herculeses, can we have some more Globemasters please, are we ever going to get F35's or is it just quicker to buy the Harriers back from the Marine Corps, why are we still buying planes with pilots at all...
...don't mention AEW Nimrods. Just...don't.
Speaking of Nimrods.....
When I was at boarding school in the UK in the 60s, and my folks lived in the Canary Islands, I was a regular flyer on Iberia and BEA.
Flying to or from Madrid to the UK, the plane BEA would use was the Comet. I still remember hearing the windows creak while in flight. At the time I didn't know the history of the plane.
If you're not already laying England for the Rugby world cup, you should be.
Deeply disappointing performance by Les Rosbifs against Les Grenouilles
Wait till the refs have to make decisions in-front of a home crowd during the tournament. It was enough to get NZ over the line in 2011 despite being distinctly inferior to France in the final.
"In defence of the Corbyn camp’s plans to renationalise privatised industries, John McDonnell MP, who is the candidate’s campaign agent, said that privatisation had been “a confidence trick”. He said: “Privatisation over the last four decades has been a history of the British people being robbed and the spivs snatching up the public assets being given the licence to print money. From the earliest privatisations of water, energy and rail to the PFI schemes from the last decade, it has been one long confidence trick.
“Under a Corbyn Labour government this shameful era of governments and ministers colluding in the picking of the taxpayers’ pockets will be brought to an abrupt end.
“Let’s also make it absolutely clear to any speculators in the City looking to make a fast buck at the taxpayers’ expense that if any of these assets are sold by Osborne under their value, a future Corbyn-led Labour government will reserve the right to bring them back into public ownership with either no compensation or with any undervaluation deducted from any compensation for renationalisation.”"
I take HL's point about civilians in arms factories being the same as soldiers in terms of military significance. Indeed I would view it as the converse with soldiers just being civilians in uniform.
In the Falklands and Iraq many of the enemy soldiers were conscripts, and this is also true of many contemporary wars too, including the various factions in Syria.
Those who start the wars are generally the war criminals, those that finish them are very rarely so. War brutalises people, and by the tail end of wars even the best disciplined armed forces will slip over the line. The real criminals are those that set up the war that put them there.
That's interesting. But are you sure he was actually 'flying' the plane? I would have thought that such experiences are given in a two seater, even if there are dual controls. At least one Spitfire at Duxford was controversially rebuilt as a two-seater for this reason ...
In the same way, steam railway footplate experiences are always given by experienced crews (or should be).
You're probably right. It seems a shame to spoil his fun by asking him. Certainly I had a co-pilot with dual controls (the other side of which was that he let me take off and land, just tweaking the controls marginally as needed).
Got the weirdest letter from the Scottish Conservatives today. It doesn't in any way exhort me to vote Conservative - the only thing it encourages me to do is to ensure that the SNP be the best government possible.
Then there's a survey on the back.
That's called data harvesting. They don't necessarily much care what you say in the survey, they're after your contact details. Look for the fine print saying that they reserve the right to use your data in order to send you interesting information etc.
Sunday Times - Betty Boothroyd warns Labour is "galloping towards the precipice" if Corbyn becomes leader
Most of the votes are probably cast already, but these warnings from the great and good do make me think that there is value in Shadsys 5/2 on Corbyn 40-50% on first prefs.
Personally I'm reacting against all this stuff. If the great and good had spent half the time helping the other candidates develop some interesting proposals, they'd have done a lot more good - as it is, they come across as bullying the selectorate.
'Extreme manoeuvres' is relative. A loop need not pull too many g's if it is a long loop.
AIUI, it depends on many things, including the airframe's fatigue life. If the aircraft is properly maintained, and fatigue life has not been reached (and you do not mind the aerobatics eating up the remaining fatigue life), why not?
A much bigger problem might be giving pilots enough airtime to keep really familiar with the aircraft; although there are several Hunters still flying, so it would not be as bad as it could be for some types.
An 80-year-old relative who is a retired pilot was given a flight on a Spitfire as a birthday present (through one of the commercial operations still offering them) and said that he'd not looped the loop for decades and it was wonderful. I was pleased for him but a bit surprised that he was allowed to do it. I wonder if the regulations for those flying experiences need to be reviewed (though I'm speaking as someone who's just enjoyed one myself - I don't want to spoil anyone's fun).
That's interesting. But are you sure he was actually 'flying' the plane? I would have thought that such experiences are given in a two seater, even if there are dual controls. At least one Spitfire at Duxford was controversially rebuilt as a two-seater for this reason ...
In the same way, steam railway footplate experiences are always given by experienced crews (or should be).
One of my staff had a flight in a two seater spitfire at Duxford a few weeks ago. Options included victory roll and loop.
Of course the words "civilian population" is a point of view. The combatants in WW2 did not make their own guns, bombs, bullets, planes, tanks, warships etc etc..... Their point being for such attacks is to break the supply line from the factories to the front while demoralising the home workforce "civilians" and preventing such weapons from being made and supplied. The other point of view is they were legitimate targets.
As bad as they were The A bombs actually saved lives in the longer term bizarrely. You only had to see how the Japanese defended Iwo Jima and then Okinawa to only begin to imagine the carnage that would have on the mainland of Japan had invasion been necessary. The Japanese were offered surrender terms they refused. They were warned before and after the first bomb and still they failed to act. It is on the shoulders of the imperial war committee and likewise the German High Command the blame should fall. No one else is to blame certainly not this country who to a man woman and child was fighting for survival and suffering similar acts at the hands of the axis forces.
"In defence of the Corbyn camp’s plans to renationalise privatised industries, John McDonnell MP, who is the candidate’s campaign agent, said that privatisation had been “a confidence trick”. He said: “Privatisation over the last four decades has been a history of the British people being robbed and the spivs snatching up the public assets being given the licence to print money. From the earliest privatisations of water, energy and rail to the PFI schemes from the last decade, it has been one long confidence trick.
“Under a Corbyn Labour government this shameful era of governments and ministers colluding in the picking of the taxpayers’ pockets will be brought to an abrupt end.
“Let’s also make it absolutely clear to any speculators in the City looking to make a fast buck at the taxpayers’ expense that if any of these assets are sold by Osborne under their value, a future Corbyn-led Labour government will reserve the right to bring them back into public ownership with either no compensation or with any undervaluation deducted from any compensation for renationalisation.”"
Sixth form nonsense. You cannot confiscate peoples property without the necessary compensation. What if the value had dropped? Is he offering to make up the difference?
Got the weirdest letter from the Scottish Conservatives today. It doesn't in any way exhort me to vote Conservative - the only thing it encourages me to do is to ensure that the SNP be the best government possible.
Then there's a survey on the back.
What did it say?
The survey was a boring details harvesting exercise asking if you agreed or disagreed with a bunch of feel good policies that anyone from any party would agree were a good thing (except for the one where the promised to use the new Scotland Bill tax powers to cut taxes).
They asked Voting Intention for Holyrood and had Conservative , Probably Conservative , Don't Know (If Don't Know have you ever voted Conservative Before) a some of the options
I meant the bit on the front where they were telling you to 'ensure that the SNP be the best government possible'.
Kezia Dugdale obviously doesn't follow PB.com as she is still on about making it a legal requirement for 50-50 Holyrood gender balance. To further upset the chaps she is moving the policy up a gear - now at least 50% of the candidates will be women:
" And she said that at least half of Scottish Labour’s new candidates for next year’s Holyrood election will be women. But she told the GMB event: “We need more than that. "
I can commend the "how to drink Scotch whisky" video on the Scotsman link. It is a hoot as a pretentious load of twaddle unless it's a double bluff. It must call into question The Scotsman's ability to investigate anything other than comedy. Hold on ....
I can see how Corbyn's planning to put the pieces together now. It's so easy if you can just make up economics, and just randomly decide upon laws.
Mind you it's not Corbyn saying this, but McDonnell - a man beaten around 10 to 1 in the leadership election by Gordo - that's got to drive anyone loopy!
"In defence of the Corbyn camp’s plans to renationalise privatised industries, John McDonnell MP, who is the candidate’s campaign agent, said that privatisation had been “a confidence trick”. He said: “Privatisation over the last four decades has been a history of the British people being robbed and the spivs snatching up the public assets being given the licence to print money. From the earliest privatisations of water, energy and rail to the PFI schemes from the last decade, it has been one long confidence trick.
“Under a Corbyn Labour government this shameful era of governments and ministers colluding in the picking of the taxpayers’ pockets will be brought to an abrupt end.
“Let’s also make it absolutely clear to any speculators in the City looking to make a fast buck at the taxpayers’ expense that if any of these assets are sold by Osborne under their value, a future Corbyn-led Labour government will reserve the right to bring them back into public ownership with either no compensation or with any undervaluation deducted from any compensation for renationalisation.”"
the only thing it encourages me to do is to ensure that the SNP be the best government possible.
There seems little chance of that
Can anyone honestly still claim Swinney should be in charge of the finances of anything larger than a tuck shop?
The European Union has suspended around £45 million of payments to Scotland after the discovery of accounting “irregularities”, it emerged today.
The EU said that the Scottish Government had done too little to resolve concerns about its accounting, seven months after the problems were first reported.
The payments relate to the European Social Fund, which provides training to unemployed people with the aim of alleviating poverty.
"In defence of the Corbyn camp’s plans to renationalise privatised industries, John McDonnell MP, who is the candidate’s campaign agent, said that privatisation had been “a confidence trick”. He said: “Privatisation over the last four decades has been a history of the British people being robbed and the spivs snatching up the public assets being given the licence to print money. From the earliest privatisations of water, energy and rail to the PFI schemes from the last decade, it has been one long confidence trick.
“Under a Corbyn Labour government this shameful era of governments and ministers colluding in the picking of the taxpayers’ pockets will be brought to an abrupt end.
“Let’s also make it absolutely clear to any speculators in the City looking to make a fast buck at the taxpayers’ expense that if any of these assets are sold by Osborne under their value, a future Corbyn-led Labour government will reserve the right to bring them back into public ownership with either no compensation or with any undervaluation deducted from any compensation for renationalisation.”"
I love these lines they come out with: "socialism does work", "a future Corbyn government". They really do have their heads in the clouds.
That's called data harvesting. They don't necessarily much care what you say in the survey, they're after your contact details. Look for the fine print saying that they reserve the right to use your data in order to send you interesting information etc.
Oh yes, there's the full spiel in a font so tiny I think it is measured in microns at the bottom with some super teeny tiny ticks boxes to opt out that are so small quantum uncertainty governs their appearance.
"In defence of the Corbyn camp’s plans to renationalise privatised industries, John McDonnell MP, who is the candidate’s campaign agent, said that privatisation had been “a confidence trick”. He said: “Privatisation over the last four decades has been a history of the British people being robbed and the spivs snatching up the public assets being given the licence to print money. From the earliest privatisations of water, energy and rail to the PFI schemes from the last decade, it has been one long confidence trick.
“Under a Corbyn Labour government this shameful era of governments and ministers colluding in the picking of the taxpayers’ pockets will be brought to an abrupt end.
“Let’s also make it absolutely clear to any speculators in the City looking to make a fast buck at the taxpayers’ expense that if any of these assets are sold by Osborne under their value, a future Corbyn-led Labour government will reserve the right to bring them back into public ownership with either no compensation or with any undervaluation deducted from any compensation for renationalisation.”"
Sixth form nonsense. You cannot confiscate peoples property without the necessary compensation. What if the value had dropped? Is he offering to make up the difference?
I think that Corbynomics will be very good for those with assets. He seems to be propsing printing money via QE and spending it on goodies. This devalues the currency, causes inflation and rewards those with assets, particularly as debts get wiped out by hyperinflation (provided the owner survives the high interest rates).
Wiping out my mortgage and increasing the value of my stocks may even outstrip the higher taxes.
Comments
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/formula1/34008319
Let us recall, if memory serves, that it was his strategic decision to let Corbyn on the ballot.
That's some judgement.
Edited extra bit: Miss Plato, even 1960s Batman isn't silly enough to back Corbyn.
https://twitter.com/Corbyn4Leader/status/635059664141570048
It does seem odd that a single X would not count as a valid ballot, given the intention is clear.
http://www.theguardian.com/media/2012/feb/21/ryan-giggs-named-court-injunction?CMP=twt_gu
Mind you, the instructions aren't very difficult.
"There will really be only two contestants in the next general election: the political class and the people. And by the “political class”, I mean the entire operation that runs, manipulates and communicates the activities of government. That conglomeration of politicians and their special interest lobbies, media followers and professional handlers is now more self-referring, inbred and profoundly detached from the reality of most people’s lives than at any time in a generation. "
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/ukip/10730787/The-people-feel-ignored-and-they-are-angry.html
It's odd how people's minds work sometimes.
In other words she wrote the opposite before the GE, a GE which proved her wrong. But then the last thing Janet Daley wanted was for Cameron to be proved right. She was praying for a Farage win and we saw how that worked out.
http://www.fonts2u.com/xxii-dirty-army.font
http://luc.devroye.org/military.html
You have been warned.
A UKIP chappie - one of the jailed ones iirc - read it out at the Europarl.
http://www.wonkosworld.co.uk/wordpress/2007/09/20/isps-censor-top-blogs/
Happy days.
The goons closed down Boris's website by accident :-)
That is why Guido is carefully protected in a tax haven which requires a bond up front from any complainant.
Thus one 'X' would probably be put in a pile for dubious votes but ultimately accepted. Obviously in an Alternative Vote election two or more 'X' would be thrown out as there's no way to tell what the intention was.
I saw a vote accepted in a Council election where a heart had been drawn rather than an 'X'.
Does anyone take this slimy Tory tw*t seriously??
" And she said that at least half of Scottish Labour’s new candidates for next year’s Holyrood election will be women. But she told the GMB event: “We need more than that. "
http://www.scotsman.com/news/politics/top-stories/kezia-dugdale-scottish-labour-needs-fresh-talent-1-3865989
https://twitter.com/MonicaLennon7/status/635114098456461312
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G57XZri7mOU
They positively WANTED non-Labour voters to vote. They're only moving the goalposts now because it hasn't resulted in what they wanted.
Yes we all want better wages ,better public services etc, but barely a word about how to pay for it, .do we really want to spend what limited resources we have on renationalisation.
Yes I am conservative, but I am staggered that a large number of people still want to follow a 1970s Messiah.
Has Labour gone mad?
Daft system, as I have been saying since May.
I was always on edge hoping the pilots would all be OK, and admiring their skills, it is a delicate balance, showing the limits of the aircraft, but no more.
Feel for the family.
The Lost Honour of Christopher Jefferies
is repeated on ITV at 9pm.
Kids Company 'inflated list of clients by 15,500': Failed charity claimed to be helping 16,000 high risk people but the real number may be lower than 500
The latest allegations emerged just hours after the Charity Commission launched a probe into the organisation, amid reports that taxpayers will lose £1.2million following its collapse.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3206679/Kids-Company-inflated-list-clients-15-500-Failed-charity-claimed-helping-16-000-high-risk-people-real-number-lower-500.html
And they have the cheek to say this is about equality.
Our view of history is often viewed through the prism of the victors. If the Nazi's had been victorious in WW2 doubtless there would have been different view of the partisans, or the Jews, or anyone who chose to support them.
The final weeks of the Tamil conflict witnessed some of the most atrocious war crimes in the last 100 years.
Wars sometimes fizzle out, sometimes they end with negotiations, sometimes they end by one side obliterating the other and preventing them from rising again.
The same RAF that fought the Battle of Britain ended the war by firebombing a Dresden filled with refugees. It is the nature of war.
Winston Churchill.
The perpetrators of these great war crimes, the pilots, the planners, the politicians deserved to be hung in the same way that we hung the Nazis. Murderers and killers.
History though is written in the name of the victors who with it claim the moral spoils.
i often think how must the Argentinians thought, when the impossible happened, they looked out of their windows and saw the incoming Vulcans, and thought Oh shit.
It was a turning point. Probably not very effective from a military point of view, but psychologically, it changed everything.
Burnham’s campaign shared data with the Observer that suggested some of those who had previously committed to voting for Corbyn were now recognising the dangers and either opting for the shadow health secretary or describing themselves as “don’t knows”.
http://bit.ly/1JcrypP
I am fairly sure, and Mr. Code will probably know the answer to this, that the take off and climb of the Vulcan you used to witness had nothing to do with that aeroplanes age but was in fact standard for the type.
The top 125 in Fedex Cup points get to play in the Barclays next week
The leading 100 from that get to play the Deutsche Bank
The leading 70 from that get to play the BMW
The leading 30 from that come to see me at East Lake for the Tour Championship, to win $10 million.
I ask purely in the spirit of seeking enlightenment as in a time of total war with conscripted armies the philosophy of who was a combatant and who was a civilian is unclear to me.
Frankly I am amazed to find one was still flying.
The Sri Lanka one is one of those awkward ones for me. It is awkward because it is obvious that @Tyson is right and there were horrible war crimes. On the other hand the sheer viciousness and comprehensive nature of the victory has meant the end to a savage civil war that killed tens of thousands over many years and would have undoubtedly have killed many, many more if any of the Tamil Tigers been allowed to surrender or simply been taken into custody.
...don't mention AEW Nimrods. Just...don't.
I saw the Vulcan last month and also saw the Red Arrows low and at very close quarters as well. For gravity defying aerobatics its the Chinooks you need to watch.
I should also add that a piston engined aerobatic plane was doing 180deg vertical stall turns right over our heads on the same day. In order to experience all this you had to stand on the perimeter next to the sign saying ''You Risk Death''.
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2015/aug/22/jeremy-corbyn-economists-backing-anti-austerity-policies-corbynomics
Anyway in light of your sensibilities, I promise I will never again make any comment about Crabs and Crab Air or make the obviously sensible suggestion that when the F35s do come they all be assigned to the FAA.
Then there's a survey on the back.
If the Nazis had won (a very bad thing of course)- there surely would have been some kind of mass trial to take account of Dresden and Berlin and the incendiary fire bombing and slaughter of tens of thousands of civilians. Doubtless images would have been presented, testimonies taken, the full force of the horror depicted. What happened here would have been presented as a war crime.
I doubt very much any one of those people implicated and tried for these horrors would have had much of a defence and would not have not been too surprised at being executed. Many would probably have thought they deserved it too.
It is the nature of war to become more extreme as time goes on. War turns the best of men into killers, and the slope is quite a slippery one. The Tamils invented suicide explosive vests, and certainly performed acts of terrorism.
Wars sometimes fizzle out, sometimes they end with negotiations, sometimes they end by one side obliterating the other and preventing them from rising again.
The same RAF that fought the Battle of Britain ended the war by firebombing a Dresden filled with refugees. It is the nature of war.
What, in your view, was the difference in WWII between an 19 year old working in a factory or office and a 19 year old who had been conscripted into the armed forces and given a weapon? One appears to have been an innocent civilian whose death, agonising or otherwise, was a war crime and the other was a what exactly?
I ask purely in the spirit of seeking enlightenment as in a time of total war with conscripted armies the philosophy of who was a combatant and who was a civilian is unclear to me.
When I was at boarding school in the UK in the 60s, and my folks lived in the Canary Islands, I was a regular flyer on Iberia and BEA.
Flying to or from Madrid to the UK, the plane BEA would use was the Comet. I still remember hearing the windows creak while in flight. At the time I didn't know the history of the plane.
In the same way, steam railway footplate experiences are always given by experienced crews (or should be).
https://twitter.com/jamieross7/status/473068708441894912
If you're not already laying England for the Rugby world cup, you should be.
Deeply disappointing performance by Les Rosbifs against Les Grenouilles
They could climb at a reasonable rate under full power. The party piece I recall is going along the length of the biggin hill runway no more than 50 feet high at a 50 or 60 degree attitude, pulling full power at the end of the runway and very noisily blasting it's way into a step climb. Was much too close, having landed ten minutes earlier.
Only one went to Argentina as far as I know. I had a mate who crashed one, which he never got over, on a psychological level.
Went on board one later, what a huge space.
Amazed at the Apache doing a loop, helicopters are not supposed to do that.
They asked Voting Intention for Holyrood and had Conservative , Probably Conservative , Don't Know (If Don't Know have you ever voted Conservative Before) a some of the options
“Under a Corbyn Labour government this shameful era of governments and ministers colluding in the picking of the taxpayers’ pockets will be brought to an abrupt end.
“Let’s also make it absolutely clear to any speculators in the City looking to make a fast buck at the taxpayers’ expense that if any of these assets are sold by Osborne under their value, a future Corbyn-led Labour government will reserve the right to bring them back into public ownership with either no compensation or with any undervaluation deducted from any compensation for renationalisation.”"
I've still got it.
I take HL's point about civilians in arms factories being the same as soldiers in terms of military significance. Indeed I would view it as the converse with soldiers just being civilians in uniform.
In the Falklands and Iraq many of the enemy soldiers were conscripts, and this is also true of many contemporary wars too, including the various factions in Syria.
Those who start the wars are generally the war criminals, those that finish them are very rarely so. War brutalises people, and by the tail end of wars even the best disciplined armed forces will slip over the line. The real criminals are those that set up the war that put them there.
As bad as they were The A bombs actually saved lives in the longer term bizarrely. You only had to see how the Japanese defended Iwo Jima and then Okinawa to only begin to imagine the carnage that would have on the mainland of Japan had invasion been necessary. The Japanese were offered surrender terms they refused. They were warned before and after the first bomb and still they failed to act. It is on the shoulders of the imperial war committee and likewise the German High Command the blame should fall. No one else is to blame certainly not this country who to a man woman and child was fighting for survival and suffering similar acts at the hands of the axis forces.
Mind you it's not Corbyn saying this, but McDonnell - a man beaten around 10 to 1 in the leadership election by Gordo - that's got to drive anyone loopy!
Can anyone honestly still claim Swinney should be in charge of the finances of anything larger than a tuck shop? http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/11816095/EU-suspends-45m-cash-for-Scotland-over-irregularities.html
Still, another excuse for Nicola to bottle IndeRef2. No money from oil, no money from Europe, what's a girl to do...
Wiping out my mortgage and increasing the value of my stocks may even outstrip the higher taxes.