This just keeps getting worse: The Times reports that the Government has rejected 300 out of 700 Iraqi employees who applied for resettlement, mostly under the 12 month rule. That’s a rejection rate of just under half. Curiously, the Foreign Office’s own scheme has turned down 38 out of 180; this seems to suggest that…
Read More Iraqi Employees: It Gets WorseThis PPRuNE thread reminds me of something from the archives. During a meeting we had not long ago, the increasing sophistication and cost of the Unpersonned Aircraft was raised – because by becoming too sophisticated and HVAA in nature, they were in some danger of becoming too valuable to risk in certain scenarios. Rather defeating…
Read More Some are expendable; others are just expensiveIt hasn’t been in the papers much since the summer, but did you know that the Russian air force has been around the North Sea a hell of a lot lately? Between October and December, I’m aware of at least five visits to the UK or Norwegian ADIZ (Air Defence Identification Zone). Not just that,…
Read More We get it almost every nightThe naval incident in the Strait of Hormuz has rapidly been blogged into next week; I think there may still be some angular momentum to be had, though. It now looks like the USN is backing off from the claim that the voice taunting them on an open radio channel was someone aboard one of…
Read More Away sea boat’s crew!It’s been said, I think by Alanbrooke, that strategy consists in the proper handling of reserves. Looking at the situation with this framework, what can we say about Iraq? It’s now been a year since the announcement of “The Surge”, the deployment of the US Army’s strategic reserve in Iraq. And what’s happened? First, it…
Read More Ou est la masse de manoeuvre?I keep noticing a new face in the game; Vertir Airlines, of Armenia, founded last year has been flying routes from the UAE into Afghanistan. Not much information has been available, but we know a few things; the only known aircraft, Antonov An-12 EK-12221, serial 7345201, is the old ER-AXE, which flew for the now-banned…
Read More Dig the new breedSo, the Obscurer snagged an interview with Gordon Brown. And what did he have to say? Well, he spoke of identity cards. And the news is not good at all. It seems that Brown is ill-informed about his own proposals (something which we have seen already from past ministers), is still committed to the most…
Read More Still addictedTo my utter astonishment, our neighbouring local authority has joined the movement of councils refusing to cooperate with the National Identity Register. Spelthorne Borough Council – that’s the area north of the Thames that was taken over from London by Surrey in 1996 – passed a motion on the 13th of December rejecting ID cards…
Read More Staines: Last Best Hope of CivilisationI think TalkingPointsMemo has badly missed the point of this AP newsfart. Says Josh: You know things aren’t good when you see a headline about Pakistani refugees fleeing to Afghanistan. But they’re not fleeing into Afghanistan because they expect civil war any moment as a result of Benazir Bhutto’s assassination; for a start, we’re up…
Read More Missed!So, after all the hype, I’ve now managed to visit the rebuilt St. Pancras Station no fewer than four times. And I think it’s not great. Why? Well, the structure itself is spectacular – but then we knew that already, ever since 1867. The civil engineering of it is pretty damn impressive too; huge tunnels…
Read More The New St Pancras