Thought Id start this one going because its rather dead on this board at the moment and I suppose all my usual muckers are either at the Stella tennis event watching Dim Tim (lose again) or at Henly Regatta eating cucumber sandwiches (they wish,...NOT).

Anyway please feel free to just talk to yourself blast away and let it go on any company or subject you wish. Just wish Id thought of this one before.

cheers GF.

Bed time for Stan

i'm afraid the following (from this morning's guardian) tells you far too much about a very large sector of american society .....


Republicans
Poll: 30% of GOP voters support bombing Agrabah, the city from Aladdin
Public Policy Polling also found that about 54% of the Republicans they polled support banning Muslims from entering the US, as Donald Trump has proposed

Of those who support the bombing of the fictional nation, about 45% support Donald Trump.

Almost one-third of Republican primary voters would support bombing the fictional kingdom of Agrabah, according to a report released by Public Policy Polling on Friday.

More than 530 Republican primary voters were polled this week on their support for Republican candidates and foreign policy issues including banning Muslims from entering the US, Japanese internment camps from the second world war and bombing Agrabah, the kingdom from Disney’s animated classic, Aladdin.

Republicans are so bullish on war that 30% would bomb a fictional country

The achievement of Cameron and his crew.

Of course the Guardian is unbiased against republicans. I treat any newspaper article with suspician. Journalists are trained to present stories to sell newspapers, no matter how. In matters of personal knowledge, I have never seen a truly accurate report. That includes that rag Sunday Times. A non-story doesn't fill the copy requirements for the following day.

I cannot see the point of expanding Heathrow at a cost of probably £10 billion because by the time all the infrastructure/roads/trains/communications etc...is all upgraded that will be the final bill...everything taken into account...now if that money is put towards the estuary airport...plus the heathrow area turned into housing and parks/villages....and it is a vast area already....I would think with all the benefits that an estuary airport would bring with 6 runways prepared for the future :and it could be a magnificent development !...something the whole country would be pround of ...also turning heathrow into housing would bring in a huge amount of money...less pollution over the capital...perhaps some shards of glass type buildings would also be built...taking all these things into account plus no need to increase capacity at other airports...Gatwick/Stansted...with all the protests..etc...also the extra funding needed can be spread over a long time...as the estuary airport will cost £50 billion...but to my way of thinking it should get the goahead !...and not heathrow .....

Hays,

Is this your self-portrait:

66437 - i just thought the article rather amusing .... unlike fred, i was never going to get silly about it

lest you did not notice, the poll sample was only 530, so scarcely even a state-full, even somewhere like nebraska

The estuary airport has been rejected by several studies. The people living near Heathrow even want it there as it provides employment. There has been an airport there since WWII. If you buy a house near an airport then expect noise and the chance of your house being knocked down. It is the same as buying a house on top of a cliff or one on a flood plain.

i am quite surprised that northolt is not or cannot be used for a number of flights, especially those that use smaller planes

Northolt does do civilian flights apart from RAF. It is used for corporate small business jets. There would be problems with expanding it due RAF traffic. Years ago it was a very secure site as air traffic control was based there and West Drayton, now at Southampton I believe. It was also home to a major part of our 4 minute warning missile tracking system connected to Filingdale in Yorkshire called Linesman/Mediator.

Jimmy Hill snuffs it https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jimmy_Hill

A fantastic innovator in so many positive ways for Football in this Country.

Could be the Con party's or UKIP's dressing room.

Heathrow is a redundant white elephant !.....if you shoot yourself in the foot once by accident ; you don't keep on doing it !....it started off with tents shortly after the second world war but now with modern aviation it is time to move on...people with jobs at heathrow would have jobs at the estuary airport of course...times move on...that is the problem in Britain...we just don't look ahead...a third runway is a bad quick fix...(if you can call it quick)...haystack...you talk about noise...but that's partly the problem....ask people around the Staines, Twickenham, Richmond areas...I'm sure they are thrilled to bits about a third runway ...also incorporated in a massive new development out in the thames would be a new Thames barrier...a new tunnel under the Thames linking motorways...shopping...parking...fast connections to london and the continent attracting overseas travellers...also the need to incorporate flights from space should be looked at...we would be miles ahead of everbodyelse if this got the thumbs up !....

Northolt has nothing to do with Heathrow....

It wasn't an ideal site as it is buit on gravel pits, which is why its general dampness causes so much fog in the area. My mother remembered digging potatoes in WWII where the main runway is while she was in the Land Army. Until Heathrow, the London airport was Croydon which is now just a flying club and airport for light aircraft.

I would choose Heathrow due to connection into Central London. There is the Gatwick express, but road connection into London is appalling. There is plenty of land around Heathrow after you have flattened a few houses. If we could afford it, I would build at both places and Stanstead.

It looks certain to be Heathrow, so it is pretty much academic what we think.

No you would not build at Stansted. :-))

At least 2 more runways at Stanstead. Plenty of land and a few houses to flatten!

stanstead is a real dog's bottom to access

Perhaps not first choice due to the distance from London.

i guess that's also one of the probs with an estuary airport ..... there are many other valid objections too