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.

Greek.

No. It is wiser not to make assumptions, unless it is explicit in what I write


(You have an a perfect right to assumptions, but false assumptions can lead you up a dark alley.)

Also, I feel it is a little like being accusing somebody of villainy, or similar action, and confirming it by on the assumption that, because the individual does not to answer, or plead according to whim, he/she is found guilty and should be "banged up".

I hope that is not the principal that you are operating on.

Greek, we are wasting time. I'm taking Hilary's comment on board and writing it out a hundred times.

try the squelch button. never used it myself.
but then havnt felt the need to write out a hundred lines either.
seems desperate. LoL!
may or may not help
just a suggestion and as always just my opinion and please be sure to dyor
regards
jkd

Raw.

What ever turns you on!

Does Andrew Mitchell manage his "government office" from the Cayman Islands?

Says it all really.

A woman who has 13 children has just been complaining about the cuts on our local news channel.
I suppose she expects us to keep her large brood.
Cost to the tax payer.
First child 20.30 per week. 81.20 per month. 1055.60 per year.
Other children 13.40 per week. 52.60 per month. 683.80 x 12 = 8205.60 per year.
Total for this 1 family 9261.20 per year, in child benefit alone.
Then of course they may be on other benefits.
Examples like this are one of the reasons we are in this mess.
If she had not received child benefit, I bet she would have found another hobby.
I think any family that has more than 2 children should not receive child benefit.
Why should we keep these large families.
Makes my blood boil.

rawdm999

The point to remember re the news aircraft carriers is that both would never have been in service simultaneously. Whilst one is operational, the other will be in refit, undergoing modifications and updates followed by a lengthy regeneration process - trials and training.

Whether the RN (or RFA) will ever have jets to operate from the carriers, only time will tell. Incidentally, the Coalition was absolutely right in that cancelling the contracts would have cost a significant amount of tax payers money.

Oh, hello Hil. Budge up a bit on the squelchy step. I brought some refreshment this time. Glass of Krug?

I would castrate the children at birth.

That would teach them to be better citizens.

Best comment so far on the whole business from Sam Jones, FT Hedge Fund correspondent, today at lunchtime:

"Cuts cuts cuts. Fund manager I am with thinks these will create opportunities. So we are having a nice Montrachet."

See Tweedledee and Tweedledum are asking Nick help to explain the economy to them.

Seems more like a comedy act on the music hall circus than a government.

Mind the act is a little black humoured.

Can't the Navy afford Charts nowadays.

Nuclear submarine 'grounded on rocks' off Skye

===============================

Royal Navy submarine HMS Astute has got into difficulty off Skye, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) has confirmed.

An eye-witness told BBC Scotland that the boat appeared to be grounded on rocks a few miles from the Skye road bridge.

A Ministry of Defence spokeswoman said: "This is a not a nuclear incident.

"We are responding to the incident and can confirm that there are no injuries to personnel and the submarine remains watertight."

The spokeswoman added: "There is no indication of any environmental impact".

The Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) said it was alerted to the incident at about 0819 BST.

A spokesman said they were monitoring the situation.

Another, you could not make it up.

A cafowner in Stockport Manchester has been ordered to remove an extractor fan because the smell of fried bacon is offending passing Muslims. Several Muslims have made complaints to Stockport Council.
I wonder if the same action would have been ordered if a smell coming from a Muslim caf had resulted in a similar complaint from none Muslims.
All actions such as this both store up and increase anger and racial tensions.
Integration, who are they kidding.

Greek,

I personally wouldn't like to live next door to a "curry" house or a "chippy". Especially if they were working 24hours a day.

I think I would be happy that they installed an extractor of some beneficial form.

=========


You like numbers and "logic".

If you haven't heard this programme, try a quick listen.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/console/b00vcqcx/In_Our_Time_Logic

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/console/b00vcqcx/In_Our_Time_Logic

pth. the principle of two warships is always a very good idea considering the lead in times involved. A backup is always useful. However, when these were on the drawing board someone should have seen the defence budget black hole forming and cut the cloth accordingly. Maybe the carriers were an ego stroking exercise for someone or may be it was thought that some more creative accounting would pay for them.

Two smaller vessels carrying fewer jets would have been better than two floating helicopter platforms.

I agree, cancelling the contract would have been totally wrong with the costs involved and at least it keeps the shipyards et al busy.

Rawdm999,

Another problem I see, is how will the build quality stand up. It must be very difficult to take pride in building a ship over several years that is destined to end up in a foreign navy, or even scrapped.
I accept there were very options open to the government, but by the time the ships are built, who knows what the financial/political situation will be.

R999

I don't think anyone saw the 'black hole' approaching, otherwise the country wouldn't be in the mess we are now. The carriers and all other defence projects were predicated upon the strategic vision at the time (we're talking some years ago). The RN service chiefs believed (and still do) that the CVS project is critical to the future shape of the Navy. Procurement is certainly a complicated business and Grand Strategic planning is always going to be flawed by the lack of a crystal ball.

Also, I don't think build quality will be any more of a problem now than it ever has been Greek, I doubt the Yards that are constructing each bit of the ships are too worried where they might end up and your final comment is entirely correct.

Defending overseas safe havens!

Just read a report where the general opinion given by the forces hierarchy and leading politician are convinced that if we have another Falklands incident, we would not be able to defend the Islands. I appreciate that they have their own agendas, thereby putting a bias on their thinking, but can anyone see how the hell we could defend another attack anywhere near the scale of the last one.
I wonder what the Argies are thinking. Probably rubbing their hands with glee, thinking 'oil lots of oil, which is probably many times value of the total defense budget.
And to say that we would be relying on the French to supply aircraft in the event of our future carriers requirements is living in plain cloud cuckoo land.
When have we ever been able to rely on France to come to our aid.
France put themselves, first, second and last. Perhaps we should.
We should have drastically cut overseas aid instead of cutting our defense budget so drastically. Remember much of this aid goes to countries who have a nuclear bomb capability. They put their defense above the care of their people. We put the care of their people above our defense.
How can that make sense.
Also remember that a vast amount of the aid never reaches those to whom it is intended.
It's about time we stopped playing the rich uncle, when we are often looked at by those countries we assist with disdain and hate.