Posts by Dave

Time to move on from Chinook to the real MoD cock-ups

More than one issue

Theres more than one issue here, sure the US choppers appear cheaper and more reliable, BUT the UK ones have advantages. First, remember the Falklands, had Argentina been able to make exocets would we have won - I think not, they relied on foreign weapons and ended up losing, we should NOT make that mistake (as we are currently doing on army lorries, shells and bullets!). Second, although the money is more some at least finds its way back through taxes, reduced unemployment, and the ability to export (perhaps not quite the difference).

It does strike me as incredible that we fail yet again to provide ourselves with stuff that works, are we really incapable? I think not, perhaps its the penny pinching paperwork obsessed management thats at fault, I don't know, but we do need to sort it out. We SHOULD use British built helicopters, but we MUST make them at least as good as the best in the world.

RSPCA calls for dog chipping

Last time I EVER donate to them - 2 reasons

First reason, providing the government with an ill thought out excuse for yet another database on lawabiding citizens, that would almost certainly end in yet another excessive fee (tax), and more work for an American or Indian company is just totally stupid, short sighted and without justification.

Second reason, I went to their website, I can't even send these muppets a comment about it without joining their database of people - with the usual lack of guarantee about my informations security or privacy.Why is it so many places (the register included) demand I LOG on before I can comment? Is this part of the stalinist nature of this country that they all have to report any antigovernment comment complete with name, address, inside leg measurement...

God, I sometimes think my grandads wasted their time fighting Hitler.

A quarter of UK adults to go on child protection database

I wonder

I wonder just how many more children are killed each year by motorists speeding in residential areas or near schools? Something like 400 kids a year in this country die in this sort of manner. This appears to be somewhat more than the number of kids murdered by dodgy geezers in dirty raincoats. This is nothing to do with child protection, all to do with the obsession with spying on citizens and raising extra fees (taxes) in any way possible. For a fraction of the cost of this police could be off dual carriageways and patrolling the streets of our towns. Or, another alternative would be to get rid of the sicko judges we have and replace them with people willing to lock child murderes or child molesters up for decent lengths of time.

Sun may never set on British Empire's pint

Can a metrophile tell me...

I see comments on all sorts of sites claiming metric is superior to imperial because it is 'easy to convert from mm to km'

What earthly use is that?

I measure small distances (length of a pen etc.) in inches (I guess you metric folk would use mm).

I measure slightly longer distances such as the width of a room in feet, or yards (you'd use m)

I measure the distance between towns in miles (I guess you'd use km).

I never really want to know how many pencil lengths it is from London to Birmingham, so I really can't see the point in converting miles to inches. Similarly I can't see what the point is in converting km to mm, to do so would imply a level of accuracy in the km measurement that is frankly not going to be there, thus making you look stupid as well as producing a waste of time number.

I don't mind anyone using metric, but they shouldn't feel superior for it, and they shouldn't try and make me change either.