A breach in the dam - by Richard... Friday, August 06, 2010

A breach in the dam - by Richard... Friday, August 06, 2010

Something which is finally going to blow apart the vile construct that is the European Union is just beginning to emerge.

This is the news, offered fairly low-key at the moment, that EU member states are exploiting passport loopholes that potentially give nearly five million outsiders, mostly from Europe's poorest countries, the coveted right to live and work in the EU.

And, of course, once they are inside the EU borders, they have freedom of movement and, eventually, unrestricted freedom of establishment. This means they can come over here and sponge off the over-generous welfare system which seems to favour immigrants above all else.

Now this is being given the Daily Mail treatment, and it is obvious that The Boy can do absolutely nothing about it, for all the bleating about immigration, the brown sticky stuff will be flying off the rotating air movement device in industrial quantities.

At the heart of this scam, which is making a complete mockery of our immigration policy – more so than it already has – are two countries, Romania and Bulgaria. They are handing out passports to ethnically linked groups or minorities outside their borders. Now Hungary plans to do the same, as of January.

The main beneficiaries are citizens of Moldova, Macedonia, Serbia, Ukraine and Turkey - about 4.7 million people with living standards at a fraction of the EU average. All are eligible for EU citizenship under passport giveaway programs.

And it gets worse. Others outside Europe, looking to escape hardship at home, are also lining up. Spain enacted legislation in January 2009 giving even the grandchildren of Spaniards whose ancestors left due to political or economic hardship caused by the Civil War the right to obtain passports from Madrid - and the response has been huge.

Spanish foreign ministry figures from January indicate that over the first full year of the law, there were 161,463 applications - 95 percent from Latin American countries. So far, 81,715 have been granted.

Total Latin American numbers are unavailable - but the Spanish foreign ministry has extended the window for applications by another year to December 2011, due to what it calls "overwhelming demand."

In Cuba alone, nearly 82,000 people have applied for Spanish citizenship and 36,415 have received it as of 30 June, clearing the way for the lengthy and expensive process of obtaining permission to travel abroad - or leave permanently. Venezuela's Spanish consulate has handed out more than 35,000 passports so far this year.

The number of Mexicans who could qualify is uknown, but 150,000 are estimated to be eligible. Of those, more than 14,000 people have been given Spanish citizenship and huge lines of passport-seekers form every day.

Then there are more than 2.6 million people of Italian origin - most of them also in Latin America – who already hold Italian passports. And, like Spain, Portugal grants passports to children and grandchildren of emigrés - most of them in sprawling Brazil, home to 200 million people.

Effectively, millions worldwide are eligible for EU passports, and in the world of the have-nots, getting a passport and welfare rights in the EU is like winning the lottery.

Basically, as this rolls out, and the world's poor come flocking to the EU, their hands extended and their welfare eligibilities worked out well in advance, we are completely and truly stuffed. If ever there was an application for the word "sustainable", as in "unsustainable", it is our continued membership of the EU.

These bloody fools have started something they don't even begin to know how to control. With stresses already building up an indigenous population which has been abused and ignored by the politicians, the backlash will make the BNP look like moderates and Powell's "rivers of blood" speech sound like a description of a Sunday school outing.

Even now, they do not have the first idea of what is coming their way. But then, when a dam breaches, there is often little warning. At the first sign of a crack, therefore, it is wise to run. And the crack is showing ... après moi le deluge.

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Day 27 - Battle of Britain - by Richard... Thursday, August 05, 2010

In fine weather, this Monday 70 years ago, the Luftwaffe is continuing its attacks on shipping in the Straits of Dover. In the early morning, six Spitfires of No. 64 Sqn fight with Me 109s of JG54, as do No. 64 Sqn Kenley (Spitfires). Two Spitfires are shot down, one from each squadron. One Me 109 crashes in France.

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The loathsome duplicity - by Richard...

Like busses - where you hang around for ages and then not one but two turn up – so it is, it seems, with helicopter stories, this being the second in succession.

This, though, is not really a helicopter story. It is more a political story which happens to involve helicopters. And more than anything, it illustrates the duplicity of politicians, their willingness to use the military to score political points and, in particular the loathsome duplicity of the Cleggerons.

In the frame here is Nick Harvey, the Cleggeron armed forces minister in what laughingly passes for a government. This is the Nick Harvey who, through the tenure of the last Labour administration, was highly critical of the shortage of helicopters made available to our troops in Afghanistan.

And, even when Gordon Brown – as legend would have it – relaxed the purse strings and allowed the military in December 2009to order 22 new Chinooks, Mr Harvey was stillhighly critical, condemning the "slow response" to the helicopter shortage as "shameful".

But now, this self-same politician who thought the delay so "shameful" has been speaking to the Western Daily Press. And, guess what. Mr Harvey has revealed that the order is now "in the melting pot" of the October strategic defence review. The "government" may decide to scrap the contract altogether.

An order of vital Chinook helicopters earmarked to help keep troops off the ground and clear of improvised explosive devices in deadly parts of Afghanistan may be shelved in MoD spending cuts.

One of the things influencing little Nicky is the realisation that British troops have been sharing the use of US aircraft in Afghanistan, which has helped ease the pressure.

"One thing that did impress me on my last visit to Afghanistan a few weeks ago," he says (where he was happily flown around in an RAF helicopter – pictured) "was the American commander telling me the coalition forces use the helicopters like a bit of a taxi rank".

This, adds our new minister, "compensates the need for more helicopters somewhat, in that people are just jumping in and using what is available from the coalition forces."

Interestingly enough, that was exactly the system which prevailed when Harvey was screaming for more helicopters for "Our Boys" – except that this did not seem to make any difference when Labour was involved.

But now Mr Harvey is at the helm, all of a sudden, new helicopters are no longer so important and it is quite alright for the Septics to supply them, as they have been doing all along – together with most of the airpower.

Funny old world, politics – but even "funnier" is the media which has been remarkably reluctant to highlight this volte face, even though it was screaming blue murder at what it perceived to be Labour's "dereliction". But then, the Cleggeron agenda of stuffing our armed forces isn't on their agenda – yet.

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Eurotrash - by Richard...

Saddled as we are with the plastic A400M, that even Airbus is getting a little worried about, we can take some small comfort from the experience of the Australian military which have made the rather expensive mistake of buying European-built helicopters.

This is the MRH-90 helicopter (pictured), a fleet of which has cost the Australian taxpayers $4 billion, and which was recently grounded after serious engine problems were discovered.

Now, another snag has been spotted, after an MRH-90 helicopter on a routine flight from Brisbane to Townsville on Saturday was grounded at Mackay airport.During a post-flight ground inspection, the crew noticed scratches on the engine intake and closer inspection found evidence of internal damage from a foreign object being sucked in to the power plant.

A decision was taken to replace the engine and an inspection will be carried out by the manufacturer Rolls-Royce Turbomeca to establish the exact cause of the damage. However, in the wake of that failure, all MRH-90 engines must be inspected every five hours of operation.

In a military helicopter, such a brief interval for engine inspection is unprecedented and it effectively makes the machines unusable for operational purposes. Such a defect would hardly bother the Europeans, who do not actually believe in using military hardware – but it might cramp the style of the Aussies, who still have some pretentions to being a serious military power.

But then, if they insist on buying Eurotrash, they rather get what they deserve.

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Day 26 - Battle of Britain - by Richard... Wednesday, August 04, 2010

Seventy years after the event, a contemporary British writer opines that when we British endure a national trauma we try, if possible, to forget about it, and are often helped to do so by the exhaustion of coping with the trauma itself. "That is why much of our history is myth," he says. "It is not what happened, it is what we can bring ourselves to believe has happened."

If the history of those 70 years ago is a myth, it extends to the weather. It is fine in the early hours, cloudy with bright intervals later, clearing in the evening, says Wood and Dempster and several other sources. There is dull weather and filthy conditions says Donnelly. Whatever the actuality, there is little air activity.

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