Eurotrash - by Richard... Thursday, August 05, 2010

Eurotrash - by Richard... Thursday, August 05, 2010

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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Go thou and micturate - by Richard...

In a response to public comments on the coalition government's approach to "Europe", the FCO website tells usthat it "understands" that so many of you feel jaded and sceptical about the EU.

Speaking about the EU in Parliament, therefore, the Foreign Secretary said he knows there is "a profound disconnection between the British people and what has been done in their name by British Governments". And thus says the FCO: "We want to deal with this." It continues:

That is why we have said we will not agree to any further transfer of sovereignty or powers from the UK to the EU during this Parliament. We are committed to ensuring that the British people have their say on any future proposed transfers of powers to the EU.

So we are introducing a law to ensure that any future EU Treaty that transfers competences or areas of power from the UK to the EU will be subject to a referendum. This "referendum lock" will ensure no Government will be able to pass more powers to the EU without your consent. This is part of our commitment to be more accountable to you for what we do in the EU.

If you did not stop reading when you reached: "a profound disconnection" and have got this far, at least we have the clearest possible demonstration as to why this should be.

As to the "dribble", and that it is, the interesting thing is that EU treaties should be looked upon rather as "enabling acts". They, in themselves, do very little. The transfer of power comes later, when they are used to create new laws. And that is the case with the latest EU treaty. The transfers of power and "sovereignty" come when the EU law is created, on the back of the treaty.

For that reason, so many of us wanted a referendum. For that reason, the "colleagues" did not want a referendum. And now the shysters currently in power want to con us that they are actually listening.

As always, they are taking us for fools. It turns out that the much-heralded "public consultation" to which the FCO was responding, was a total sham - as we always knew it would be. But, since we would not even consider as a title the most obvious response, we dress it up a little. It means the same thing.

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Water on a stone - by Richard...

Gradually, on the blogosphere, diverse sites are building up knowledge and expertise on important subjects, such as service periods and costs for bird mincers.

This site is an example - nothing big-time or dramatic ... more likes drips of water wearing away at a stone. But it is something that that cannot be ignored.

Speaking of which, John Rosenthal has done asuperb analysis of the "EU Connection in Climate Research".

He has identified 26 projects on climate change funded out of Framework Programme 6, worth a whopping €165,580,451. In FP7, the "climate research" manna, he says, has flowed even more freely.

In just the first three years (2007–09) of the current Framework Programme, the European Commission has already funded 28 projects on climate change for a total EU contribution, according to provisional data, of some €116,271,772.

Actually though, Rosenthal, for all the depth and value of his work, might have missed a trick. As we have reported, the EU is allocating €1.9 billion from FP7 on climate change and related "sustainability" issues, a factoid which would hugely strengthen his arguments.

It also makes the money paid by Big Oil completely irrelevant, as Booker asserted. And through these diverse and several means, the message gets through. It can't be stopped, and the force is irresistable.

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Day 25 - Battle of Britain - by Richard... Tuesday, August 03, 2010

A Fairey Battle Mark 3 L5110 of No. 253 Squadron en route from Northolt to Turnhouse suffered an engine fire and then engine failure as it flew over Tanfield at about 19.00hrs. The aircraft crashed just to the NW of Causey. The crew, Sgt J A Anderson and LAC Ricks, baled out and landed on Gibside Estate; both were injured and were taken to Rowlands Gill.

The full story of this crash only emerged much later. Sergeant Anderson - known as "Andy" to his friends - had exhibited great bravery. The Squadron had been given two old Battles for hack work and target practice, and one day one of them, burst into flames.

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An experiment - by Richard...

A second layer of explanatory notes gives added depth to the "Days of Glory" blog – see the sidebar under "weapons and systems". This is an example. Is it too techie? If so, what needs to be done to improve it?

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Is God a warmist? - by Richard...

The Methodists – albeit in draft – according to this statement, headed: "Approaching God in the context of climate change", seem to believe:

The theological task is to reflect on modern scientific accounts of the threats presented by climate change in the context of affirming the triune God as creator and redeemer of the universe. The scientific analyses of climate change and the role of human carbon emissions are well-grounded. It is now intellectually and morally irresponsible to fail to acknowledge and address the urgent need for radical cuts in greenhouse gas emissions in order to prevent intolerable damage to human populations and mass extinctions of many plant and animal species.

This is an interesting observation for a sect with its "intellectual" origins in Arminianism. This holds that humans are naturally unable to make any effort towards salvation and can achieve this only through God's grace. It also holds that salvation cannot be merited and no works of human effort can cause or contribute to salvation.

On that basis, it would seem that, unless God is a committed warmist, the Methodists are rather in trouble. As it is, She could just be having an Almighty joke at our expense.

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Five years on - by Richard...

At the beginning of this month, five years ago, we launched the (then) new forum. Total posts now run to 103,651 on 8,419 separate topics, from 903 members. Our newest member isAutonomous Mind. I note with some wry amusement that we included in our launch statement this:

... Helen and I both reserve the right to delete or move abusive, verbose or polemical posts that interrupt the flow of discussion. This is not "censorship". Anyone has freedom of the internet, but websites are private space and, as in newspapers, you have no right to be published.

That one issue has perhaps given us more grief than enough, as some of the more aggressive trolls regarded it as their God-given right to deposit their pearls of wisdom on our forum.

Having weathered a heavy-duty hacking from Moslem fundamentalists, our main problem is the high volume of serial spammers, determined to convince us of the merits of bootleg Viagra and other merchandise, their additional aim being to harvest the credit card numbers for onwards sale.

Despite this, we have avoided the temptation to go for pre-moderation and, generally, we still operate a very light touch, even when, on the one occasion we got a long intervention from a serving minister. We guess that there are not many forums which have had such posts.

However, there remain technical problems which have never really been resolved, and with the acquisition of our own domain, we are thinking through possible developments, of which we will apprise you when we know what we are doing ... there is a first time for everything (knowing what we are doing, being one of them).

With luck, that should see us through another five years of what to date has been a very rewarding experience, bringing many new friends who have made our little "community" a very worthwhile enterprise.

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Social workers - by Richard...

The voice of experience. We know there is a massive problem here. Time and again we get confirmation of it, yet no one in authority seems to be able to do anything about solving it – not the judges, not the lawyers, not the MPs, nor even the Boy.

But ignoring a problem does not make it go away. This is not going to go away, and the longer it is left, the more chances there are that irreversible damage will be done to the very fabric of society.

To paraphrase a familiar saying: you can ignore all of the people some of the time; you can ignore some of the people all of the time; but you cannot ignore all of the people all of the time. We will be heard.

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Day 24 - Battle of Britain - by Richard... Monday, August 02, 2010

The news of the day was the Hull registered steamer Highlander (1,220grt - pictured, pre-war at the quayside in Newcastle), under her master, Captain William Giflord, which steamed into Leith harbour with parts of a Heinkel 115 seaplane draped across her stern.

The ship had just survived a bombing attack and downed at least two of these machines, returning in triumph.

The action has started the previous day, just before midnight, when the Highlander was passing along the East Coast, about three and a half miles from land. On hearing a low-flying aircraft, the ship's two light guns were manned and speed increased.

This turned out to be a wise precaution as the aircraft dove into the attack. Machine-gun bullets swept the steamer's superstructure, riddling the funnel and deck fittings and piercing the side. There were no casualties. The aircraft passed astern, circled, and then returned for a second attack, at still closer range.

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Twenty years ago - by Richard...

You really would not know it from the reaction of the British media, but twenty years ago today, Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait. It was, to say the very least, a game-changer. Readers will be pleased to learn that Saddam's effigy is still on display at Madam Tussauds. Gone, but not quite forgotten.

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The dreadful Huhne - by Richard...

Autonomous Mind ruminates on the worst possible energy minister we could possibly have – until the next one. Even those of us who knew Cameron was going to be bad have been stunned by his choice of Huhne to do the job – a man who is as incompetent in his day job as he is tawdry in his private life.

Normal people who behaved like this man would be ashamed to show their faces in public. But this is the political class and anything goes. So up he pops, now as the great political guru, and he gets a hearing. It is no wonder people are switching off from politics big time.

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