Edinburgh Council Rant.

Are they really planning to get the new carriers under there ?

My Dad was on HMS Hermes for a Sea Harrier trial and reckoned they didn't have much clearance, maybe it was the angle.

The new carriers will just be a tourist attraction if they can not get under the bridges!!!! Lets hope they get the calculations right. The Rail bridge
might just slice off the top of the carriers however the road bridge could come off worse :)
 
I suspect that is more the success of those nice chaps at Abbey Wood

And the nice chaps in light blue who persuaded him that Tornadoes and Typhoons with huge engines and sharp pointy noses, which aren't primarily designed to help the army or navy, are much more important than STOVL aircraft which are. It is a little unfair to blame a politician for taking the highly paid expert advice provided (if the RAF aren't the experts on aviation what are they for?) when usually politicos get flak for ignoring their own advisers!
 
And the nice chaps in light blue who persuaded him that Tornadoes and Typhoons with huge engines and sharp pointy noses, which aren't primarily designed to help the army or navy, are much more important than STOVL aircraft which are. It is a little unfair to blame a politician for taking the highly paid expert advice provided (if the RAF aren't the experts on aviation what are they for?) when usually politicos get flak for ignoring their own advisers!

Thread drift, but this politician might have had the brains to get advice about Naval aircraft from the Navy; this government doesn't give a toss about defending the country as long as cuts can be seen.

If we were going to ditch something useless, main battle tanks would have been a good start.

I suggest we return to the Edinburgh Council issue.
 
Thread drift, but this politician might have had the brains to get advice about Naval aircraft from the Navy; this government doesn't give a toss about defending the country as long as cuts can be seen.

If we were going to ditch something useless, main battle tanks would have been a good start.

I suggest we return to the Edinburgh Council issue.

Surely you are not suggesting Edinburgh Council is useless and should be ditched? :confused:
 
I am not familiar with Abbey Wood, but the idiotic SDSR was the idea of Camerfool and his cronies.

The problem is that the politicians great ideas for the services tend to be implemented by the serpentry in Main Building and Abbey Wood, buying things badly is the speciality of Abbey Wood
 
The problem is that the politicians great ideas for the services tend to be implemented by the serpentry in Main Building and Abbey Wood, buying things badly is the speciality of Abbey Wood

What they buy (badly) is what the services want, not what the nation needs them to have. So:

The navy gets yet more pointless frigates and destroyers, because that is what the have always had. The way to the top is frigate/destroyer command, and that includes submariners and aviators

The army is wedded to the aristocratic cavalry aka the tank and the big SP artillery despite the obvious need being for infantry

The RAF wants long range bombers (because they are very fast and sexy, and because they offer a role for an independent air force to win a war by itself aka shock and awe or terrorising the civilian populace) and short range fighters (because they are very fast and sexy, and because fighters saved Britain from the Nazis, so we will always need an independent air force to fly them)

Nobody really wants useful things like serious transport airlift (fixed and rotary wing) or amphibious lift, certainly not if their spending wish lists above have to be cut to fund them.
 
What they buy (badly) is what the services want, not what the nation needs them to have. So:

The navy gets yet more pointless frigates and destroyers, because that is what the have always had. The way to the top is frigate/destroyer command, and that includes submariners and aviators

The army is wedded to the aristocratic cavalry aka the tank and the big SP artillery despite the obvious need being for infantry

The RAF wants long range bombers (because they are very fast and sexy, and because they offer a role for an independent air force to win a war by itself aka shock and awe or terrorising the civilian populace) and short range fighters (because they are very fast and sexy, and because fighters saved Britain from the Nazis, so we will always need an independent air force to fly them)

Nobody really wants useful things like serious transport airlift (fixed and rotary wing) or amphibious lift, certainly not if their spending wish lists above have to be cut to fund them.

What a wonderful thread... drifted all over the shop and about as virulent as you can get on a Baltic early March week end too cold to go sailing :D :D
 
Surely you are not suggesting Edinburgh Council is useless and should be ditched? :confused:

That other useless and expensive (very) lot in Edinburgh should be ditched as well. The only reason I could see for keeping them would be if they were to say that "independence" also means definitely OUT of Europe too

The people of the North East of England had the good sense to tell 2 jags Prescott where to go when he suggested that they should have a regional assembly!
 
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