eldridge – Member

Ughhh – the Yanks f'cked us over with the Falklands

By supplying us with the very latest Sidewinder AA missile technology?

In WW2 US policy was admittedly self-serving and cynical

To argue that it was:

as anti-UK (and other European "imperialist" natons like France and the Netherlands) as it was anti German, anti Japanese.

is just daft

They didn't carpet bomb us like they did the Germans, and they didn't nuke us like they did the Japanese. And they only bombed the French and the Dutch out

Re.: the Falklands – my comments relate to their foreign policy, and based on memory rather than Wikipedia etc… at best the Yanks were ambivalent. IIRC there was some fairly protracted negotiations regarding the use of Ascension as a staging post, and I've heard it reported that they extracted a pretty high price for the use of their airbase on our island…all at a time when they were using the UK as an unsinkable aircraft carrier in the stand off with the Soviets… Not exactly a special relationship.

As far as WW2 is concerned, US foreign and military policy has been extensively debated in published literature. Yes they didn't carpet bomb or nuke their allies, but as you suggest their conduct was more self serving as it was at providing support to allies – and that is fine, if you're going to risk service lives and huge material resources. It's just that the cynical reality is rather diferent to the benign victors image that they like to project. Many senior figures in the US were vehemently anti-Brit.

Dropping the atomic bombs on a beaten and ready to surrender Japan was more about curtailing Russian territorial ambitions in Manchuria and Northern Japan (and also French and British desires to regain SE Asian territories)

Couldn't the yanks lend us one of their battle groups?

Ughhh – the Yanks f'cked us over with the Falklands, and it's a bit of a habit. If you're familiar with your history you'll realise that the UK / US alliance and "special relationship" are a load of bollocks – since, oh about a little tea party in Boston….

US conduct (esp foreign poilcy, bt also military) in WW2 could arguably be regarded as anti-UK (and other European "imperialist" natons like France and the Netherlands) as it was anti German, anti Japanese.

Negotiation was a valid activity whislt the Task Force was being assembled and in transit to the S Atlantic. However, chances of succesful negotiations were always low with an occupying force on the islands, and nil after arrival of the TF. The sinking of any of the warships did not scupper the negotiations – just confirmed that there was no-where for them to go.

With the Argentinian military unlikely to back down it was inevitable that military action would follow soon after the arrival of the TF – if for no other reason that the Argentinians would have to supply / reinforce their garrison in contravention of the exclusion zone.

What wasn't inevitable was the invasion in the first place – succesive UK governments had signalled low interest in the islands, and Thatcher's run down of the Navy, diplomatic position, and finally, the proposed withdrawal of the ice patrol ship HMS Endurance (1981 defence Review) confirmed to the Argentinians that they would not be opposed militarily.

I can't comment about the land campaign, but from the Navy perspective I know many thought that they were bloody lucky. The Falklands was a lash up. Once ashore things were more certain, but the Navy / amphibious operations were far from certain.

Oh, and FWIW, the Navy personnel that I new and were down in the Falklands came home with a burning hatred of Thatcher. For having to do a job that they shouldn't have had to, and for the 1981 Defence Review and not having the kit to do the job.

I like the smoky, peaty Islay malts in general…

Other west coast malts that I like include Oban, Talisker and Jura (although sometimes I find Jura great, othertimes, not)

For something mellow try Balvenie.

My absolute favourite though has to be Bunnahabhain.

Agree with OP and post 1.

Greed, waste, arrogance and inequality seem to sum up the human condition

I stand corrected – X1 – Red, and £2750…

I got my mitts on an X3 a few weeks ago. Before I took delivery my train of thought was…

… I'll swap the race wheels off the other bike, get new Easton CNC bars and lighter crankset in the CRC sale… then after the winter clag I'll get some nice x9 transnmission, and some SIDs when I can afford them etc, etc.

As soon as I got the bike I changed my mind instantly – hadn't even ridden it…No Fwck it, that just looks SO right it's staying exactly like it is…

ETA – it rides pretty damn good too

The X2 looks gorgeous in red – but personnaly I can't see any justification for spending an extra £1k over the X3.. Which in black with red highlights is a handsome beast

ETA – and it looks far better in the flesh

Sssshhh…

… don't tell them about rotating weight.

I got overtaken twice on Monday – whilst turning right 👿

In both instances the drivers had seen me and slowed down. I could hear there engine note drop to tickover and I check my rear before moving out in the lane and again before turning right. Both lost patience and I could hear their engine note pick up as they decided to overtake – ****ts

What's the old adage – "don't argue with idiots – they'll drag you down to their level; and then beat you with experience"

I don't dispute diesel efficiency – my previous post was to point out that your

Why don't I believe that.

comment was either ill informed or prejudiced

My original comment re the Golf was that it would do mid 30s driven hard and low 40s on the motorway – I made no attempt to hide that, and my figures corrsepond well with VWs offical Combined and Extra Urban mpg figures of approx 36 and 45.

My example was highlighting the effect of driving styles rather than a straight comparison of engine efficiency.

My fuel consumption in the Golf was generally better than many of my colleagues driving turbo diesels because of the way in which they drive

I still fail to see why that should be a source of disbelief

Why don't I believe that.

That's fine – you'll choose to believe what you want.
The Golf would sit at 80 in 6th gear and do 40-42mpg all day. Yes a diesel will typically do 50+mpg – but not the clowns that you see charging down the MWay slip roads with a black cloud billowing out behind them 😉

Mrs rkk01 doesn't understand how to drive a diesel, and I know many other folk who don't. I'll drive our S-Max day in day out and get high 40s / low 50s mpg. My wife will have it for a day ot two and the average (for that tank will be down in the low 40s…. She uses the rev range as she would in a petrol car, and won't use the lower range torque and gearbox to change up. Loads of drivers do this in diesel cars – my boss has a new "Efficient Dynamics" BMW 3 Series – and doesnt rate it's performance. Having been out with him it clear that he just wont adjust to the diesel engine's strengths and expects best performance in the top 25% of the tacho.

An idiot driving an efficient car won't get good efficiency, something I've come across many times in my work career with colleagues using turbo diesels and then complaining that they don't return the claimed mpg.

139g/km of CO2 and 47.1mpg on the combined cycle.

If you've not pressed the sports button and drive like a old man.

Well that applies to pretty much everything you might drive 🙄

I had a Gof GTi MkV that out performed most of my colleagues diesels for fuel economy – for the simple reason that they drove their diesels with a very heavy right foot. The Golf on the other hand would do 35mpg when driven hard and easily do 40mpg at high motorway speeds.

Ohh, and BTW, I wasn't arguing against the efficiency of diesels – I currently drive a Ford S-Max TDi, and very good it is too.

Just observing that the next generation of petrol engines should bridge the gap on economy / CO2 emissions – but without the SOx / NOx / PM10 air pollution caused by diesels

Diesels are old hat, horribly polluting, heavy and uninspiring to drive.

Petrol is where it's at now – just you see, now they've got us all driving diesels the taxation levers will go back the other way. EU refining capacity also makes petrol cheaper.

Cynicism aside, the new Alfa / Fiat multiair petrols look like the revolution in petrol technology that will make petrols as tax / fuel efficient, but with all the driver appeal associated with petrol engines.

Mrs rkk01 likes this – and who am I to argue

The key figures include maximum power of 168bhp at 5,500rpm, up to 184lb.ft of torque at 2,500rpm (if you've pressed the Sport button), 0-62mph in 7.5 seconds, 139g/km of CO2 and 47.1mpg on the combined cycle.

Thatcher – after all, it's all her fault

Well, if we're specifically taliking about today –

Idiot Car Drivers

Got overtaken twice whilst turning right yesterday

I really like these – and after a few close shaves with the commuting traffic this winter, have been seriously looking into getting one (have a yearning for the red)

HOWEVER – they seem to have a really weird cut. I'm not overly fat / large build, but to get one that fits my torso comfortably I'd need to roll the arms up from my knees 🙁

Thatcher – after all, it's all her fault

in a word….

… lovely

Had a TS Sportwagon as a company car – leaving that behind was the worst thing about getting a better job with a new employer.

The only problem I had was a flat battery – was doing circa 30k pa. Gorgeous to look at, really nice to drive, fantastic engine sound – especialy from 4500 rpm to the redline.

Only downside was that it needed a roof bars and box to make it into an outdoors / camping vehicle

ETA – wouldn't fancy the fuel bill on the V6

it would be nice to think that there was room for some common sense / lattitude…

Many years ago my father received a summons (I believe – I was quite young at the time) – apparently he had been "apprehended" in possesion of an unlicensed shot gun.

What had actually happened was that a junior copper had noticed that his shotgun certificate had expired and that he had not renewed it. A little "creativity" on the part of the eager for promotion constable resulted in a report that my father had been actually apprehended, at a specific time and location, with a loaded and unlicensed shotgun (unlicensed because his shotgun certificate had actually expired…

What actually happened was that my father was recovering from an industrial injury that included a broken neck – unsurprisingly he hadn't noticed that his licence required renewal. Not sure if the strict liability bit was in legislation then (pre Hungerford & Dunblane), but a combination of medical reports (stating that he could not have been where the copper said he was) and suitable application of discretion by more senior officers ended up with his licence being renewed rather than him being prosecuted..

Not sure that such a pragmatic approach would prevail today

Meritocracy

carbon337 – Don't take any notice of all the posters on here…

Do what you're comfortable with, not what the lynch mob suggests.

Whether Dawkins is liked or disliked is irrelevant. What he says and why is incredibly important, unless we want to return to the Dark Ages.

People from the scientific community (including Dawkins) have only recently started to stand up and voice their opinions on religion and the promotion of religious views.

And the reason for this is very clear – when the leading industrialised county in the world starts demanding that it's children are taught creationist twaddle in Science lessons, we should all be worried.

Teach what you want in RE or "creative writing", but the promotion of blatant lies as science is not acceptable within a modern technological society.

ETA – And this fundamentalist / born again outlook is not just limited to the US (or the Islamic theocracies). There has been plenty of publicity of rich donors to UK city academies etc wanting their religious views to be expressed within the science curriculum. 👿

Giro are good for a large fit. I have had a Xen for a long time, and now have an e2

Dawkins might be a tad assertive with his views, but he is merely voicing logical opinions shared by many thinking people – people who for a long, long time have had little public exposure of their entirely sound philosophy.

In terms of dogma…

… it would take many centuries of a whole host of Dawkins' to come close to the religious dogma developed by the established religions….

Higher rate tax starts at £43k, and those paying it are the top 10% of earners.

IIRC the higher rate always started in the mid £30k s???, and is now £37,400. My employer(s) certainly deducted from my packet from about 34k onwards….

I think "well off" here is relative. Higher rate tax payers are not some sort of fat super rich. The majority of us have progressed through "ordinary" jobs and are on PAYE, so no accountants etc like the genuinely high earners.

If you're a middle ranking civil servant, teacher, serviceman etc, you are likely going to be caught by the higher tax bracket (which hasn't really changed substantially since I started work in 91…

I've paid the higher rate of tax since 2003 and have become progressively worse off during that period.

Childcare costs are incredibly high, especially if you are living / working away from family support networks (Normo Tebbs told my generation to "get on our bikes" – so C2W is an ironic benefit!!!). Friends of ours were paying nearly £800 / month for 3 days nursery care for their daughter…

… and it doesn't stop when they go to school. School hours and holidays are notoriously incompatible with workplace hours, so we need morning and evening childcare for ours – or one of us stops working…

Google PSP Go sales – the things have really bombed.

Overpriced, and consumers have railed against the lack of a disc reader. Anyone with existing PSP games won't be able to use them.

We were looking at getting a new PSP for our son, and decided not to bother. PSP3000 still seems like the one to buy – bigger screen, cheaper, able to read UMD discs….

Pogues

Silverfish – in a basement in Exeter. Took me a week to get my hearing back

Carter – early 90s (30 Something tour). An absolute riot

Always regretted not seeing the Pogues when they were at their best

DailyMail.com must be down today….. given some of the tripe posted on here.

My commute includes about 6 miles of off road cycle lane – and very pleasant it is too, provided you remember to dodge the dog walkers, extending leads and piles of dog turd.

However, the last 2 miles are in city centre traffic, and the cycle lanes are an absolute joke – far safer to be in the traffic flow taking a visible presence in the centre of the lane.

As has been posted – more cyclists in the traffic flow = more driver awareness (hopefully)

Some of Cardiff's cycle lanes are actually narrower than the width of my bars, and have been robbed from the traffic lane – in a car, it is simply not possible to drive within the marked lane without encroaching on the marked out cycle lane.

5thElefant – Member

Does that mean you don't use your dishwasher? In the same way you don't use your bike?

It means I don't define myself by a possession or feel any kind of affinity for other users of a similar possession.

And… I immediately assume anyone who does define themselves by a possession is a mindless peer-pressured cock.

What a load of tosh – all those folks sat in their cars are, by definition based on their possesion, DRIVERS….. oh, hold on, perhaps I do agree with you – in a convoluted way…..

Those crazy spaniards….don't they know that Nuclear is much more manly than those silly windmills?

Ahhh, but those crazy Spaniards have a cultural NEED for windmills…

…something for their quixotic knights to go jousting with.

So what is publicly owned or privately owned land??

Clearly this will be obvious in many situations, but for example, many town / city centres have now been bought by property management companies….

OMG – papers will be going ape over that…. again

ooOOoo – Member
How would it be less damaging rkk?

Less damaging than what??

Clearly "doing nothing" will cause less / no damage, that is obvious.

The choice is doing something or handing a less civilised future to our children. Rightly or wrongly our standard of life is heavily based on availability of energy.

Our choices include (not exclusively)

Reduce energy consumption – highly desirable, but unlikely to be sufficient on its own
Continue burning fossil fuels – but they add CO2 and will be expended in foreseable future
Develop nuclear fission for now, possibly fusion for the future?
Continue developing smaller scale and micro sclae renewables
look at large scale engineered "sustainable" sources such as the Severn Barrage

Turn the lights out and see a breakdown in civilisation…

I'm not an advocate of any one single option – but as a society we do need to choose, or pressure our elected representatives to choose on our behalf.

We simply cannot continue to disregard each individual option because a significant minority don't like it – which is precisely why I rasied the Severn Barrage….

ETA – Just seen ranos' posts – No I don't disagree. There will clearly be ecological impact. That's one of the choices – presented here as an alternative to the anti-nuclear thoughts posted further up the thread…
And agreed re 5%

ransos – Member
ransos – misquoting to mislead??

Err, no. It's effectively a dam because it will hold the Severn back until the tide's lowest point, thereby flooding approximately 260 ha salt marshes and flats.

There is, presumably, no benefit to holding back the impounded high tide level all the way to low tide – you just loose head as the incoming tide rises, and you can't run it all through the turbines in one hit anyway.

IIRC the WAG study recommended circa 1 hr impounding delay – enough to provide a generating head for the turbines, and still allowing the tide to come in and go out over the wetland areas – this is the principle that tidal barrages work on. I can't imagine that you could design a structure to retain the whole of the Severn Estuary on one side as the tide went fully out on the other!!

The Sustainable Development Commission's report indictaes 17TWh for the Cardiff-Weston Barrage, up to 23TWh for other options, and an annual CO2 saving of 7.3 million tonnes

ransos – misquoting to mislead??

The barrage would effectively be a dam in engineering terms, and some of the issues quoted, especially sedimentation, would apply – but operationally totally different.

The Severn barrage would supply 5% at most.

I assume that is for one of the smaller schemes?? The maximum potential is nearer 20-23TWh, against a current usage of about 350 TWh – ie approx 15%