Wednesday, 23 March 2011

Political incomprehension - by Richard... Wednesday, March 23, 2011

The average British household has seen its real-terms income fall by £365 in the worst three-year squeeze since the early 1980s, according to the Institute for Fiscal Studies, dragging it down 1.6 percent since 2008. During the previous half-century, the average income had risen by 1.6 percent each year.

Against that, inflation is up to 4.4 percent, taxes are up, and are set to increase further with today's budget, as Government finances continue to spiral out of control.

This is balanced by reduced entitlements, poorer services, increased charges and public sector fees – all the while the ruling classes continue to pay themselves more and better salaries and pensions, while the rich get richer and the poor get poorer.

This, it seems, it just the time to embark on a foreign adventure, to keep the minds of the plebs focused on the bread and circuses – except that most people aren't buying it. They are deeply suspicious of the cost and alarmed at the evidence that the Boy doesn't actually know what he is doing.

This is getting close to the stuff of revolution. We are not there yet, but each of these developments brings us a step further down this perilous road, from which there is no turning back once the destination is reached. But not only are our ruling classes out of touch, they seem to have lost the ability to understand the consequences of their own actions.

Put it altogether, in very simple terms – cut people's incomes, increase their outgoings, and then treat them with contempt, and they will bite you. This should be easy enough to understand but, one fears, in today's budget we are going to see another example of political incomprehension. Unless our political classes have a death wish, however, they should never under-estimate the power of people who have nothing to lose.

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It's a start - by Richard... Tuesday, March 22, 2011


... but not enough. If the hand wavers could cut evening and daytime programmes as well, we might be getting somewhere.

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Costing us a bomb - by Richard...


The Times (no link) is asking questions about the cost of Dave's little adventure in Libya, and so is the Daily Mirror. Even the hand wavers are asking questions. Nice to see them catching up with thederivative blogs.

I've revisited my own figures, and found I had over-egged my original calculations. The GR4s are cheaper than F3s, a about £33,000 an hour. I've assumed that VC10 and TriStar costs and AWACS are about the same as Nimrod, at about £33,000 an hour as well. An eight-hour sortie for three GR4s, therefore - with support - costs about £1.5 million.

From what I can see now, the Tornadoes carry only two, not four Storm Shadows. But here there is the greatest variation in costs. The Times is saying £500,000 – without giving a source. The Mirror has defence "expert" Francis Tusa saying that Britain pays around £1.5million for a pair. They are both wrong.

The hand wavers quote Prof Malcolm Charmers, from defence think-tank the Royal United Services Institute, who gives £500,000 as the cost of the Storm Shadow. That tells you all you need to know about Charmers and RUSI. He is wrong as well.

The total programme cost for the Storm Shadow was £981 million, and we bought 900 missiles. The sum includes development costs, INITIAL support costs and unit procurement costs. There are also the aircraft integration costs - the costs of adapting the aircraft to carry and launch the missile.

Thus, we have the typical MoD trick of separating out the costs under different headings. But the real cost is £981 million divided by units procured ... 900 as far as we know. That makes £1.1 million each in round figures, and puts the single mission cost - with six Storm Shadows at £6.6 million - at slightly over £8 million.

The Brookes cartoon in The Times shows a stylised GR4 with its external stores, each with a label. One Storm Shadow is labelled: "half a school", the other: "the other half". We also get "tuition fees", "disability benefit", "one hospital" and so on. Against that, what have we to show for our down payment of £8 million, plus all the rest of the money being poured down the drain?

Cameron has made a serious miscalculation here – and so have the grubbly little MPs who have rushed to support him. Either we are broke, and we must cut spending to the quick - including defence spending - or we are swimming in cash and have plenty to spare for something that isn't directly our problem. They really can't have it both ways.

If they now want to tell us that we must tighten our belts even further, just so that little Dave can enjoy his ego trip, they are likely to meet with a less than sympathetic response - and instructions which are biologically impossible to carry out.

But there is another element here. Throughout the Arab world, people are losing their fear. You never know, this might just catch on here, and our masters might regret taking us for granted. We didn't ask them to go to war, we haven't given them our permission - we didn't even vote for them as a government - and we are certainly not happy about having to pay for it.

Even our masters can only treat us with this level of contempt for so long, before we've finally had enough of them. This has brought us a whole lot closer.

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Nuke to the rescue - by Richard...


The nukes at Fukushima may be down and out but in the Gulf of Finland, nuclear power has beendrafted in to rescue 63 ships stuck in the ice.

The job has proved too much for the eleven diesel-powered Russian icebreakers waiting at the country’s Baltic harbours, which has led to an historic decision. The nuclear-powered icebreakerVaygach sailed from Murmansk on Monday to assist the trapped ships.

This follows on from the drama earlier this month and it is the first time in recent memory that a nuclear-powered icebreaker has been sent to work in the busy Gulf of Finland.

The nuclear icebreaker is spending a large part of her time assisting the passenger ferry Princess Maria that operates between Helsinki and St. Petersburg. The ferry cannot cope with the trip alone, which is why the icebreaker has to assist it in Russian waters.


The Vaygach is an interesting ship. Built in the Wärtsilä dockyard in Helsinki at the end of the 1980s, she is one of five in the active Russian nuclear fleet. Officially designated as a shallow-draft river icebreaker of the Taymyr class, she has a crew of 91, who can be at sea for as many as seven months without a break.

However, as the vessel left Murmansk only one and a half weeks ago, the crew still have fresh fruit and vegetables to eat. It has enough fuel - namely uranium - for five years. There is also enough entertainment onboard. There is a sauna, a swimming pool, a gym, a sports hall, a library, and a recreation area aboard the 50,000 hp vessel. Playing chess and watching films are favourite pastimes.

But nothing is too good for these heroes. Combating this global warming can really be hell.

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We have not heard the last of this - by Richard...

With his announcement on drink driving, Hammond has obviously not realised who is in charge. The "colleagues" will not leave it there. They will be back.

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And we should care? - by Richard...

Events in Japan have changed Moonbat's viewof nuclear power. You will, he says, be surprised to hear how they have changed it. As a result of the disaster at Fukushima, I am no longer nuclear-neutral. I now support the technology.

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Cameron's game of silly buggers - by Richard...


There seems to be mixed response to Dave's little African adventure, which has a ComRes/ ITV News poll telling us that 53 percent of respondents think British forces should not risk death to protect Libyan opposition forces against Gaddafi's regime.

Only 35 percent agree it is right for the UK to take military action, while two thirds either disagree (43 percent or don’t know (22 percent). Nearly half (49 percent) agree that military action in Libya is an unnecessary risk for Britain, although 31 percent disagree. Asked if they feel they have a good understanding of why the UK is planning military action in Libya, more than half (52 percent) agree.

However, just to illustrate how you can get virtually any answer you like out of opinion polls, aYouGuv poll has 45 percent of respondents agreeing that Britain, the US and France are right to take military action against Libya. Only 36 percent think it is wrong.

By contrast, Blair's folie de grandeur, the invasion of Iraq, had in 2003 some 54 percent in favour, and 30 percent against. Even the best response for the Heir to Blair doesn't match his approval rating.

Meanwhile, the babies are squibbling about a dust-up between 13th Century Fox and Gen Richards, over whether Dave has permission from the UN tranzies to kill Gaddafi. With the former GP saying "yes" and the professional soldier saying "no", and No. 10 briefing against its own CDS, one yearns for regime change ... in Whitehall. But why do Richards and his bag carrier wear DPM? Why aren't they in proper uniform?


As to Dave's War, more Tornadoes are now on station, and the Eurofighters at £70,000 an hour are now in Italy, strutting their stuff. Never mind that no one is quite sure whether there areenough pilots. Dave's ego has to be served.

Yet, after scrimping on the basics and firing fast jet pilots, he is running up a bill faster than a lawyer on overtime, stacking up the defence budget that he was so keen to cut. And that may be the ultimate outcome of Cameron's game of silly buggers – that policy and financial rectitude are infinitely flexible when the tranzies come calling.

The funny thing is that Dave also got "overwhelming support" in the Commons for his bid for glory. Even though the Boy is sluicing money down the drain, MPs have voted by 557 to 13, a majority 544, in favour of the wee pretendy war. Yet again, one sees the Westminster bubble speak ... and the nation does not follow. MPs are engineering their own redundancy.

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The price of ego - by Richard... Monday, March 21, 2011


Well, little Euroslime Dave is having a ball with our money. Pics (one above) and details suggest that we had three Tornadoes on that little jolly to Libya, each carrying FOUR Storm Shadows. At a million a pop, that's £12 million-worth of tax payers' money up in smoke.

The 3,000-mile round trip, we are told, took eight hours, accompanied by VC-10 and Tri Star tankers, plus an AWACS E-3D, as a command aircraft. Currently, the running cost for a Tornado is about £45,000 an hour, and the big jets cost about the same (or slightly cheaper). In terms of order of magnitude, this amounts to a mission cost (call it the delivery charge) of just over £2 million. With ordnance, that puts the total price of yesterday's little episode at a cool £14 million.

Most of this is money already spent, but the aircraft use up hours, and the ordnance has to be replaced. Therefore, it is actually real money, that has to be extracted from the taxpayers' pockets. And it is interesting that, with all the flag-waving and trebles all round, none of the hand wavers or the babies have actually worked out how much little Euroslime's vanity trip is costing.

The interesting thing is that, spread in the right places, you can get an awful lot of leverage for £14 million. Delivering about six tons of high explosive, at a rough cost of £1,200 per lb is about the least cost-effective way of spending that amount of money. However, when it comes to bolstering the Boy Slime's ego, no doubt he will think it money well spent.

UPDATE 1: "Libya action hits Ryanair flights", says The Independent. The Budget airline has had to alter its flights to Sicily because of the air strikes against Libya, making room for Italy to move F-16s and Eurofighters from bases in northern Italy to Trapani, from where Ryanair normally operates.

A thought occurs. Why don't we give the explosive delivery contract to Ryanair? I'm sure they could do it cheaper, and carry passengers at the same time. Think of the flight premium they could charge ... an extra tenner to watch a Storm Shadow launched ... proceeds to the Tory Party funds. Simples.


UPDATE 2: Hand waver on Sky News (see here) gaily describing an Italian-built Palmaria 155mm self-propelled gun (above) as a "tank". Knocked out by the French, this is a true example of European co-operation. The Ities sell the Libyans the kit, the Kermits destroy it, regime change happens and then the European arms salesmen move in for the next round. It all makes work for the (European) workman to do.

UPDATE 3 The babies have got in on the act as well, with another pic of this famous "tank" ... aka Italian-built Palmaria. Mind you, it has taken long enough to get the girlie boys to tell the difference between a "tank" and an APC. But it is asking too much for them to work out the difference between a tank and a SPG - that would blow their tiny little minds.

UPDATE 4: This isn't a tank either. It's a self-propelled nun.

UPDATE 5: A very sceptical look at the whole adventure, and the underlying agenda. Some interesting observations - verging on tin foil ... except, think "Pan Europa". The "colleagues" have always wanted North Africa as part of Greater Europe. The idea goes way back.

UPDATE 6: And then you have Gerald Warner: "All they are saying is give war a chance. Ticking another box on the Things To Do list, the Heir of Blair last week managed to initiate a war he could call his own".
True, Dave inherited the Afghanistan debacle, but that was a hand-me-down conflict originally the property of his hero Tony. What Dave wanted was a piece of action of which he could take personal ownership; nothing too bloody, nothing too protracted and certainly nothing too expensive - ideally, a wee pretendy war to boost his status.
Good stuff! You can see why the babies got rid of him from The Failygraph. Not sure about the "nothing too expensive" though. This looks as if it will be costing us a good few hundred million, with no end in sight.

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Meanwhile - by Richard... Sunday, March 20, 2011

The story the British MSM can't be bothered to tell. The Irish are getting stuffed by the EU. Come to think of it though, when was that news?

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One of our interests is missing - by Richard...


A small salvo from Szamuely. Does Dave really know what he's doing? Well, there's always room for accidents, but this isn't one of them. Such is the hyperbole from the hand-wavers and the babies that not one is asking the key question – what is the national interest? Yet they are happy to report without a bat of an eyelid that the RAF is now preparing to use Storm Shadows against Libyan targets.

These, of course, are the million pound bombs that the Tories originally ordered as another of those mad European ventures from wonder boy Portillo. Kermit tills will be ringing out as they work out the cost of replacements of what is primarily a French project. Unsurprisingly, Sarkozy is beaming with pleasure.

And that really is the question – of all the mad dictators in the world – why is this Dave's or even our problem, to the extent that we can afford to lob million-pound missiles at stretches of empty desert? Do we actually want to support these rebels? Or is this really about giving Dave some feel-good headlines while topping up the Kermit tills with our money?

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Plugged in - by Richard...


Apparently, they have run an extension lead out to Fukushima and plugged the plant back into the mains. It will be switched back on as soon as the call centre has cleared the down-payment through the bank and the direct debit has been set up.

The BBC and the other babies can now return to waving their hands and emoting about the latest group of earthquake victims they've discovered, carefully doling out the victim quota so they don't run out before the call comes to wave their hands over Libyan victims. Meanwhile, another blogger is less than happy about moronic journalists.

He's setting up a "wall of shame", but I think it would be just better to post the names of the very few journalists who have an emotional IQ of a five-year-old or higher, and an equivalent grasp of physics. Meanwhile, the babies are getting excited about the bombardment of Libya with 112 Tomahawks ... wow! Have they any idea how big that country is?

The situation is slightly redeemed by the great political satirist Matthew d'Ancona whose dry wit is so subtle that, on first read, you actually think he's praising Euroslime Dave. What a card!

Interestingly, I picked up this piece by ex-journalist David Simon. It makes some good points, but underlines the salient fact that most MSM journalists really do not understand blogging – or bloggers.

Eventually, though, the MSM is going to self-destruct, and not for any of the reasons David Simon makes out. It is going to be for the single reason that the news media has forgotten what it is for. And unfortunately, their problems can't be solved by running an extension lead out, and plugging them back in.

Meanwhile, Japanese fire truck drivers are to be sent on courses to improve their parking techniques (pictured - love the registration plate ... it has to be a coincidence ... isn't life strange).

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Cats - by Richard...

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Costing our nuclear future? - by Richard...


There is no parallel between Fukushima and Chernobyl at all, says Booker , who notes that the scaremongers have been out in force, with talk of "meltdown" and claims that the Japanese nuclear power plant emergency threatened a disaster "worse than Chernobyl".

There is, of course, says our man, no parallel with Chernobyl at all. The problem at Fukushima was not the explosion of a working nuclear reactor (all its reactors had been automatically shut down). The main problem was the lack of water to cool spent fuel rods.

Then, even if the overheating rods caught fire, the worst-case scenario was never more than that some radioactive particles, given an unfavourable wind, might reach as far as Tokyo. There was never any chance that this could compare with Chernobyl, although even the long-term effects of that 1986 disaster, as it turned out, were very much less serious than scaremongers at the time predicted.

Booker makes the point that the excessive stockpiling of fuel rods at Fukushima has arisen because pressure from anti-nuclear groups has made the safe dispersal of nuclear waste so difficult. This means, in a sense, the Greens are partly responsible for the problems – not that they will ever admit it. Greens never take responsibility for anything – everything is always someone else's fault.

The big problem though is that the effects of this unique accident on the renewed drive for the nuclear energy that the world so desperately needs may be seriously damaging. In the forefront of those countries which have now responded by closing down reactors or abandoning plans for new ones is Germany, where Angela Merkel was booed in the Bundestag for suggesting that we should move on to "the age of renewable energy as soon as possible".

At least here in Britain our energy secretary, Chris Huhne, has so far refrained from saying anything so fatuous; although how he is going to persuade our German and French-owned electricity companies to build the nuclear power plants needed to keep Britain's lights on will be more of a puzzle than ever.

Really though, there are enough complications to our energy policy already, without adding this – which is something we as well as the Japanese could have done without.

Posted by Britannia Radio at 05:00