XL Leisure Group Failure; - Here we go again

The XL Leisure Group went into Administration today
(12th September 2008) and the joint administrators decided that immediate cessation of all trading was the only option.

The failure of the United Kingdoms third largest travel group has an immediate effect on customers, staff, companies supplying services to the group (which in turn may affect the staff in these companies) and investors, whether shareholders, or banks and because of the range of XLLG activities these effect will extend globally.

Before background to this failure I think it necessary to list the companies which form XL Leisure Group many of which do not have XL as part of there trading Name and at the same time provide links to useful information to XLLG Customers:

XL Leisure Group - Companies and Holdings
First I will cover companies in the group which should provide British customer protection under the CAA run ATOL Scheme:

• The Really Great Holiday Company PLC - ATOL 3827 Trading as:
  
  • Cruise City
  • Excel Holidays
  • The Florida Skytrain
  • Transatlantic Vacations
  • Travel City Direct
  • Travel City International


• Kosmar Villa Holidays PLC - ATOL 1760


• Freedom Flights Limited - ATOL 5296


• Aspire Holidays Limited - ATOL 6536

British Customers who are on, or have booked Inclusive Tours Holidays through the above XL Leisure Group Companies should be protected by the CAA run ATOL Scheme and the Links above are directed to the relevant form for that company. However some of the above may also have Flight Only offerings and these may not be covered!

The XL Leisure Group also own the following companies offering services to British Customers:

• XL Airways - Flight No's XLA - Whilst NOT Covered by the CAA ATOL Scheme see this page: CAA run ATOL Scheme See also the ABTA Advisory
• Medlife -See the ABTA Advisory
  
• In addition it has a 20% Stake in Libra Holidays
• It also has very close relationship with two French Tour Operating Companies CrystalTO and Heliades.

The XL Leisure Group also have Airline Subsidairies in France, Germany and Ireland: Neither the French nor German Airlines have been affected by the Parents failure and continue to trade normally (sources CAA and XL Web Site), but the Irish Airline appeared moribund even before the collaspe:

• XL Airways France Wikipedia Entry
• XL Airways Germany Wikipedia Entry
• XL Airways Ireland

The Commercial Arms of XL Leisure Group:

• XL Aviation -XL Aviation is the commercial sales arm of XLLG. It sells charter capacity on flights operated by XL Airways and also buys and sell charter capacity on numerous other airlines.
• XL24 - XL24 is a dealer in "relief" aircraft in the airline-to-airline market, providing sub-chartered aircraft from the XL Airways and other fleets to other airlines who require the extra capacity on short notice.

Finally there are two other airlines in which the XL Leisure Group has a share holding:

• Xtra Airways - USA 19%
• Skywest - Australian 5%

Because of the size of the XLLG Groups British Activities this failure has been considered the greatest since Court Line in 1974.

Impact on those who have to deal with the Immediate Aftermath
Whilst the media obviously concentrate on the impact on Customers they never consider the efforts of the failed groups employees and agencies staff who have to deal with the immediate and ongoing aftermath of the failure.

British Travel Group and AIrline failures always seem to be decided in the small hours of the morning (Court Line, Laker Airways, International Leisure Group, spring to mind). This means the first non-executive staff who are aware of the situation are the Night Shift Operations and Crewing Staff.

Whilst being now aware they probably soon won't have a job in the near future, they have to get on with the task of getting a sitrep out to all their Customer Representatives at destinations around the world and to crews Nightstopping overseas, in most cases this will have to be initiated by a Phone Call which will slow things down.

As this progresses they will have to commence the notification of Ground Handling Agencies around the Route Network to brace themselves for what is to come (bearing in mind these Ground Handling Agencies will also be owed money).

The CAA will also be among the first notified and they will have to start the work of planning and implementing the rescue of ATOL covered passengers, plus building it Web Site Advisory Notices etc, other parties such as ABTA will also have to be advised and by this time the Media will be 'on the case'.

Bad News travels fast and soon the Operations and Crewing Centres will be bolstered by PR and Enquiries Staff. By the time the first Passengers start to arrive at European Destination Check-in, most Sections in the affected Airline and Travel Companies will be manned, whether these are customer contact, or not.
Whilst these sections workload will dramatically increase as the day wears on at least they are spared directly facing the Passengers.

Even when pre-warned the Ground Handling Agencies will not have much time to call-in extra staff and initially at least they and the Company Representatives will be overwhelmed, especially as the rest of the Ground Handling Agencies Operations have to continue normally.

The situation will get worse if there are a lot of affected flights through the Airport and each flight has Passengers some of whom are protected under ATOL and some who aren't. With the assistance of the Airport Authority it may be possible to at least move these passengers to a special area of the terminal building. But it is very unlikely that the Company Representatives will have sufficient local funds to provide even Light Refreshments.

Representative at the Hotels where customers are staying will now also be in the 'firing line' and with even less direct support than their colleagues at the Airports.

Whilst the first day is always the worst day in reality, for the company and agency staffs it is usually the second day that seems the worst because although the rescue of the stranded has started, those not covered by the ATOL Scheme will becoming more desperate, and although the general situation will improved at the individual level, the customers will be even more frustrated and angry and the staff attempting to deal with the situation will now be overtired.

By now writs and impounding of assets by Agencies and Airport Operators probably will have started and even as the stranded passengers , crews, station engineers if expatriates and later as the Hotels clear, the Hotel Representatives are repatriated the work for the Airport Based staff changes, but goes on as they try to keep Head Office informed and deal with local debts and in some cases income.

The fact that almost all such staff stay on the job in some cases without knowing if they will get paid never ceases to amaze me (the two extremes I know of was a representative on when being told his company had failed took the cash box and company car an ran for it, the other was a Guy who spend six months in Lagos after the Airline Failure and having told Head Office that he could do no more, was sent a thank you message, but no Ticket. British Airways very kindly flew him home, to discover for some to the period he hadn't been paid).

However normally after seven days most of the 'front line' action will be over and most overseas representation will either have been repatriated, or made redundant if locally employed.
The callcentres and operations centres including crewing and engineering will linger on with decreasing coverage for about six months.
The Head Quarters and Operational Back Office Sections will be rapidly wound down, but a small number of staff will be retained for an extended period as the company is liquidated some might even be there for a year or two.

But most staff will be out of work within two months. For the Customers a ruined Holiday for the Staff a difficult and in some cases bleak future.

It must be borne in mind staff in supplier organizations may also in some cases be affected and some businesses owed a lot of money may themselves go under.

Regardless, the Administration of the Liquidation such a large and relatively organization will continue and indeed in 5 years time may still be ongoing.

Reasons for Failure
The reasons quoted are the result of volatile fuel prices, the economic downturn, and were unable to obtain further funding.
All of which is no doubt true, just as it was for the failures in the past of Court Line, Laker Airways and ILG (International Leisure Group).

But just as in these cases there is slightly more too it than that. Like the three mentioned above XL Leisure Group has expanded aggressively in a very short time. At lot of this expansion following the Management Buyout of 51% of the equity, with the previous owners Avion Group of Iceland retaining 49%.

Such rapid expansion requires funding and that funding is obtained on the basis of sustained growth and a favourable interest rate coupled with NO major changes in operating costs. Well two out of the three have not gone XLLG's way!

It appears that XLLG's failure has caught the General Media at least by surprise, but like Court Line, Laker and ILG the signs have been noted in the Financial and Airline and Travel Industry Presss for weeks, with early indicators back at the end of 2007.

For Example:
Travel Weekly - November 2007 - XL Leisure Group sheds 500 jobs (although the reference to Libra Holidays is I consider the most important)
TTG - June 2008 - XL Leisure Group records £24m loss
Times Online - 31 August - XL Leisure Group enters crisis funding talks
Telegraph 31 August 2008 - Hope for XL after lenders spend the weekend in talks

From the 1st September the coverage in Business sections continued to rise, but I think you have got the flavour of the concerns being expressed.
As additional funding did not come to fruition and the main revenue earning season coming to an end (which obviously had not been that impressive as far as the financial instutions were concerned), then Administration was going to be likely. When it came about the Administrators were obviously so concerned they shut down operations immediately.

Gustav and Civilian Telecommunications

This post is related to my more general comments on the
Handling of the Gustav Hurricane Emergency
Whilst in the US the Emergency Services, Police National Guard and Coastguard, have dedicated Radio Networks and Landlines to maintain their Communications, Civilians are dependent on their normal service providers.

As my interest in telecommunications is both professional and personal, my attention was quickly drawn to an article by:
Rajani Baburajan on TMC Net entitled Service Providers Step up to the Challenges Presented by Hurricane Gustav.

Most of this post is made up of comments on extracts from her article, which starts:

The strength and weaknesses of communications technologies are revealed during disasters. People depend on these technologies during emergencies, and during such times offering flawless services is of utmost concern to providers.

The impact of Hurricane Gustav is the latest example of such a situation. Maintaining telecom infrastructure during hurricanes is a difficult task, made more difficult by increased volume of calls from people checking on friends, colleagues and loved ones in the hurricane zone — volume that can result in overloaded networks.

Extremely well put, I wish I could write as clearly and concisely as Rajani. In the UK we tend to forget how easily Mobile Networks can be overloaded especially when a very large number of simultaneous calls are attempted from the same cellular cluster. In the US this can be exacerbated by operator coverage limitations, which in the UK are only experienced by a relatively small percentage of users regardless of operator.

As for Landline Telephony, both in the US and the UK, there is an almost religious belief we will be able to connect a landline to landline call, but actually this is NOT the case. Whilst landline networks normally have a large contingency volume handling capacity they can under certain circumstance reach this. Especially if there has been damage to local, or enroute network infrastructure. Whilst my limited knowledge of the UK Disaster procedures for Landline Networks is at least 15 Years out of date, I assume the Cascading Priorities still apply with at its most extreme only Government and nationally vital telephone numbers will be allowed to connect calls.

Back to the Gustav Emergency: The two dominant operators in the affect areas are the resurgent AT&T and T-Mobile. Again quoting from Rajani's article:

In anticipation of power outages and network jams that can occur during hurricanes, major service providers including AT&T and T-Mobile this weekend prepared their teams to deal with hurricane Gustav in a competitive manner.

The last two words which I have highlighted caused me to raise an eyebrow! Dealing with a disaster of potentially massive proportions in a competitive manner, hmm, surely this is a typo, obviously this should be cooperative manner.

No it wasn't a mistake as the next few paragraphs relating to AT&T revealed:

AT&T on Sunday announced the availability of more than 2,000 GoPhone devices with $15 airtime to people who were ordered to evacuate. The phones were made available on a first-come first-serve basis to residents who live in areas where mandatory evacuation was ordered.

AT&T distributed the phones through its retail locations in Houston and San Antonio, Texas, where a large number of evacuees from Louisiana and southeast Texas were staying. AT&T said it planned to make the phones available as early as Monday evening.

Chris Penrose, vice president and general manager for AT&T's wireless unit in south Texas, said this initiative will help people connect with family and friends or take care of critical needs in times of crisis.

This is what I consider to be 'a nice gesture', but with more than one eye on the PR value than actually being a good corporate citizen and now surely having got that out of the way, AT&T will tell Rajani what they have been doing to maintain service to customers!

Apparently not, as Rajani moves onto the practical efforts being made by T-Mobile inc (part of T-Mobile International AG, the mobile communications subsidiary of Deutsche Telekom AG) to deal with the emergency:
T-Mobile deployed an incident command team to Birmingham Command Center and locations throughout the Southeast and in Texas, to mobilize its team of engineers and technicians in case the hurricane affected networks. The company said it fortified its network switch operations that serve the Gulf Coast. Additionally, it planned to beef up its microwave radio equipment and send out Cell-on-Wheels (COWs) teams to facilitate wireless communications affected areas.
Good practical engineering and command control planning and implementation. No instant PR value, but what I would expect a reputable Telecommunication Provider to do in a Disaster Situation. Well done T-Mobile.

This good corporate citizen stuff is followed by some practical (and what I consider commonsense) advice to evacuees which I hope was made available via PBS, Public Service Advertising and handed out on the Evacuation Buses:
Service providers also requested people to adopt wise communication strategies to help them serve better during such crises. For example, instead of making voice calls to their friends or relatives, providers suggested using text messages, which use fewer network resources. Providers also asked customers to use landline phones as a backup since they do not require electricity to operate.

Finally Rajani covers what the Web (providing access is available) can do to help:
With advanced Web communication technologies such as Google Maps, weather, news, and alerts available on mobile phones, customers can utilize these resources to determine the status of weather conditions and handle emergency situations wisely. Examples of such services include AT&T’sMobiTV, AT&T Mobile TV and My-Cast Weather. Wireless data devices such as Apple’s iPhone and BlackBerry smartphones allow sending of messages to large groups of people simultaneously. However, these services are available under special subscriber plans and limited to a few subscribers.
All good practical stuff.

For More Articles by: Rajani Baburajan<

For Related Articles in this Blog See:

• Handling of the Gustav Hurricane Emergency
• Katrina has wiped out by Communications - Inveneo and friends to the rescue
  
• Preparing for a visit by Rita - Gosh She is here!
• Shock & Awe by Katrina

Handling of the Gustav Hurricane Emergency

Sitting on my hilltop in West London safe in the UK, I watched the BBC and ITN News coverage of the build up of the emergency evacuation plans for New Orleans and thought this is a text book example of both how it should be done and American organisational and operational capability at its best. Effectively the complete opposite of the situation that existed prior to the arrival of Hurricane Katrina in 2005, when along with almost every Commentator I was scathing about the emergency plan and its implementation (see: Shock & Awe by Katrina ).

Disaster Planning on this scale with the co-ordination of so many agencies Federal, State, City and Parish is one of the most difficult and complex civilian tasks to undertake. But the 'acid test' of any plan however carefully constructed is when it has to be implemented and whilst I am sure in the careful analysis in the coming months there will be a few changes made and unfortunately some people with 'personal agendas' will highlight any shortfall, I have to say as an interested but uninvolved observer it was incredibly well done!

Every plan of this nature depends on effective Command & Control Communications and as this is only mentioned when it falls down, the implication is that it didn't and as Command Control is vital, I think those responsible should be lauded.

The 'sharp end' of any plan is those who's duty is to stay behind and British coverage at least, has not really touched on the courage of the Emergency Services, Police and National Guard who had to remain in the danger zone to protect the lives of those who would not be evacuated and guard property against those in any society see disaster as a criminal opportunity. I hope those in authority acknowledge their role.

In my article on Katrina I wrote:

After the ritual bloodletting in the political arena, hopefully wise men and women will learn and build on the lessons so painfully taught by Katrina. But in New Orleans it appears the problems encountered in the aftermath of the 1993 Floods were forgotten, so I cynically suspect will the lessons of Katrina by 2017.

Well Wise Men and Women did take the lessons of Katrina to heart and build a disaster plan that worked and hopefully they will continue to 'tweak', update and maintain the plan and the resources required, so that even if not required again in New Orleans until 2017 it will be ready and waiting to be implemented.

Related Articles in this Blog:

• Gustav and Civilian Telecommunications
• Katrina has wiped out by Communications - Inveneo and friends to the rescue
• Preparing for a visit by Rita - Gosh She is here!
• Shock & Awe by Katrina

Alitalia Files for Bankruptcy Protection

Alitalia has applied for bankruptcy protection whilst efforts to restructure the company continue. To this end administators will be appointed to oversee the process

In my previous post on this subject: Alitalia - How long before the life support is switched off?
I wrote:

Alitalia as currently constituted is NOT VIABLE. Without a massive downsizing both terms of routes, fleet, bases and therefore staff. A renegotiation of Ground and Aircrew contracts of the remaining staff, to bring these in line with commercial reality, not custom and practise, is also required, otherwise Alitalia will be forced to cease operations.

What I never expected was that, Roberto Colaninno the man appointed to take charge after the restructuring process would state the situation even plainer terms when talking to a journalist with La Repubblica newspaper:

"No one can buy Alitalia in the state it's in,"

He went onto say:

"With all respect, I am not Merlin the magician. The business is toast. It doesn't exist any more. There's nothing left."

Behind the scenes there has been a tremdous amount of 'deal making' going on with a group of Italy's most powerful families agreeing to a massive investment in a restructured entity. In Addition both Lufthansa and Air France continue to look into a post-structuring stake (which as it wouldn't be a take over any such investment would at least symbolically meet Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi precondition of any rescue deal that Alitalia's would contine to be Italian owned).

Talks with the Unions have been ongoing, but little has leaked out, except one of the Unions whilst accepting that huge job losses are inevitable wants the employees made redundant, given jobs with other state owned industries.
I suppose this would be progress of a sort, but the Unions really must wake up to simple facts:

• The job losses will be truly massive
• The inefficient customs and practises will have to go
• All worker groups will be affected whether Managers, Aircrew, or Ground Staff

Personally I still think the Unions assisted by certain Managers will cause Alitalia to self-desctruct, or at the very least make the restructured Airline as inefficient as the current incarnation and thus doomed to failure.
As I ended my last post on this subject, I shall end this one:
Alitalia please prove me wrong.

Other Posts on Alitalia in this blog:
13th January 2009:
Alitalia Reborn - But will it Survive?

06th October 2008:
Alitalia - Is the Opera entering its final act?

13th September 2008:
Alitalia - Have the Unions Killed the only hope?

29th July 2008:
Alitalia - How long before the life support is switched off?

Mobile Phones On Aircraft - US Congress to vote on in-flight mobile ban

As those of you who follow the rambling path this blog takes, I have a problem with using Mobile Phones in-flight.

I first looked at this subject back in October 2007 with a piece entitled:
Mobile Phones on Aircraft - Like the Technology - Hate the Consequences

This was followed by an update Mobile Phones On Aircraft - Update In November 2007.
This was an Article 'lifted; from the excellent ABTN Site.

Now another excellent site The Register has published today news that US Lawmakers are going to vote on the pithily entitled HANG UP (Halting Airplane Noise to Give Us Peace) Act, which has passed the committee stage.

Now this act is NOT based on safety concerns (the current FAA rules are based on safety fears for which there is NO real justification), but on these calls being an Annoying Nuisance (Which they certainly will be).

Whilst I am always suspicious about the motives of some US Legislators (see Sniping at Airbus – A game all the US Establishment can play, from June 2005 which has a slight connection with this subject and UK-US Extradition Treaty and Certain American Politicians Support for Terrorists; from August 2006, which doesn't), on this occasion I am on the side of those who drafted this act and hope it makes it into to US Law.
.
This will of course upset those who ae addicted to Mobile Calls and Texting, but this law will at least mean the experience of flying to, from and across the USA will not become any worse and for that every frequent business traveller will be immensely grateful.

Newer Post on this subject:
Mobile Phones on Aircraft: Ryanair Rollout Voice/SMS/Email Services
24th February 2009

Alitalia - How long before the life support is switched off?

In my many years in Aviation I have watched a number of truly Great Airlines with a proud and long history die.

Some have declined slowly like your favourite Grandparent, who when facing problems large and small, which in days past they would have shrugged off, now just hasten the terminal decline. But although you expected it, still when they go, it is a shock - Pan Am springs to mind.

In other cases they are first weakened whilst they adapt to changing marketplace and then attacked from inside as if by a virus caused by owners asset stripping without
caring for the future.

Despite this they struggle to recover, only to be taken over because they are now under capitalised and have no strength to resist - TWA is a classic case.

Then there is the new generation Management Board taking the family fortune and investing it unwisely. Swissair.

Then there was Sabena - Heavily Unionised and worse still the Unions not only extremely powerful, but unable to see the new realities.
Staffing rules both National and Union which made the ability to operate efficiently desperately difficult, both on the Ground as well as in the Air.

This coupled with internal warring between Management Factions, some who desperately wanted to push through the changes they saw as vital and those who really saw no need to change and wanted to continue operating in some hypothetical golden past.

Sabena was a National Airline living in the 1960's despite the approach of a new millennium.

The fact that Swissair chose to invest so much of its fortune in Sabena was amazing at the time and remains a source of wonder to me now.

Of course it managed to survive to 2001, but the writing was on the wall a decade before and whilst some in Sabena did read it and tried their best to implement change, they were up against powerful forces not just Unions who it appeared were determined to stop any change, but even some Senior Managment who refused to see the realities.

Now there is Alitalia. There are differences with Sabena, but there are far too many similarities.

Heavy Unionised with the Unions having the same myopic view.
Some powerful Managers who want change as long as of course their division is exempt.
Others who see change as not just vital but long overdue, but are stymied by not just Union Power, Collegue Oppostiion, and even more importantly Political and Government Interference/Intervention, which makes the Beligian Governments relationship with Sabena appear as a very 'light touch' indeed.

When Air France-KLM bid for Alitalia was successful, I saw a direct correlation with Swissair - Sabena. When the plan was scuppered by a change in Italian Government, I believe Air France-KLM had had a very lucky escape.

Alitalia as currently constituted is NOT VIABLE. Without a massive downsizing both terms of routes, fleet, bases and therefore staff. A renegotiation of Ground and Aircrew contracts of the remaining staff, to bring these in line with commercial reality, not custom and practise, is also required, otherwise Alitalia will be forced to cease operations.

But the Italian Government and the Unions want Altialia to change and yet be the same This is a dream which even those smoking opium would have problems with.
As it is obvious Italy has not learned the lessons of Sabena, it is just a matter of time before the EU (European Union) steps in and stops more Italian Government financial aid and within a few months the money finally runs out and Aitalia is no more.

I have been saddened by the failure of all the airlines mentioned, Alitalia becoming an aviation historical footnote appears inevitable as the changes required cannot be implemented and even if there was sudden change of heart I believe it is already too late.

Too often in my career I have made a written prediction which I hoped was wrong, but believed was right and unfortunately I have in the vast majority of cases been proved correct. Alitalia please prove me wrong.

Other Posts on Alitalia in this blog:
13th January 2009:
Alitalia Reborn - But will it Survive?

06th October 2008:
Alitalia - Is the Opera entering its final act?

13th September 2008:
Alitalia - Have the Unions Killed the only hope?

29th August 2008:
Alitalia Files for Bankruptcy Protection

Which Role Model: Shami Chakrabarti or Amy Winehouse

Shami Chakrabarti
Director of Liberty the organisation that is dedicated to civil liberties and promoting Human Rights. Qualified Barrister, erudite very bright. I may not agree with her on some , indeed many issues and even where there are areas of agreement find her emphasis is different from mine.

But this is a woman with talent. ability, and fights her battles with reasoned debate. Who has by hard work whilst a wife and mother earned the respect of even those who disagree with her. Now there is a role model for the next generation

Amy Winehouse.
Has a god given singing talent, but is convicted drug user, has been arrested for violent behaviour!
Role Model, surely not, just another sad case of someone who was born with a talent and just could not handle it!


Unfortunately, it is an extremely sad reflection on our Media driven and Celebrity obsessed society that it is not Shami Chakrabarti, but Amy Winehouse and others of her ilk (some with no talent at all) who it appears are the role models for many young women!

Idle Thoughts on the NUT (National Union of Teachers)

Maybe I do have a masochistic streak (see previous post), as I have just spent some looking at the NUT (National Union of Teachers). Now most Unions whether I like it or not, do have to a greater, or lesser degree a political activist element, but since the 1970's I have often wondered if the NUT strays too far in politics and indeed too far into having agendas approved at conference that are against the Wishes of Parents, who after all want there children to be educated, not politicised.

I have come to some conclusions, which I accept may be unfair, or just plain wrong, so why not send me a comment.

• The NUT has single handedly managed to reduce the Public's Respect for Teachers to just above Estate Agents.
• The Speeches and Policies made at NUT Conferences have greatly influenced many Parents to make sacrifices to move their children from state to Private Education, or if this is just not possible to faith Schools.
  
• The NUT has too many members who's political agenda is at variance with there professional duties.
• The NUT's antipathy towards Faith Schools, which in general 'punch far above their weight' in terms of providing children with a good education, is fuelled by the fact that these schools employ only competent staff, rather than some anti-religious stance. Especially as at last conference time was spent on faith teaching in schools
  
• NUT spends more time whinging about what should be and spends far too little ensuring Pupils get the education required.
• Class sizes. I was taught in what the NUT would consider far too large classes (40+ down to mid 30s). There were NO teaching Assistants and each Teacher had different ways of maintaining interest, discipline and spotting those who were struggling and those who were rushing ahead. Now I accept that Social Changes have made Teachers lives more difficult, but good Teachers should still be able to run a 30+ class. I think the image projected by the NUT has frightened away many who would have been good teachers!
• The NUT has NO interest in Teaching Standards, only in keeping its members employed, regardless of ability, suitability, or ethics
  

Having lit the touch paper, I shall stand well back:

I enjoyed the Glasgow East By-election

For someone who believes in the United Kingdom and therefore is a unionist (without any party affiliation), the fact that I enjoyed an SNP victory would indicate a masochistic streak. Actually if I had been an elector in Glasgow East, I would have probably cast my vote for the SNP as they were the only party likely to give the Governemt the 'shock' it needed!

I stayed up to watch the result and when after a recount the SNP won, I did go to bed with a wry grin on my face.

It appears every analyst, political commentator and 'man in the pub' has a view on why the SNP Won. so I don't see why I shoudn't add my 'two pennyworth':

• This was the 'Mother' of all protest votes. Traditionally a Labour Stronghold, people had just had enough and wanted to give the Government a 'good kicking' and remind them that East Glasgow has problems that need to be tackled and despite some progress, not significant when spread over the 11 years of Labour Government
• The SNP ran an excellent Campaign (admittedly by bringing in activists from outside), whilst the Labour Party didn't. Labour was permanently on the back foot.
• Whilst the Conservatives were an extremely poor third, they did win some respect for bringing David Cameron to the constituency. As for the Lib Dems well perhaps they viewed this one as a lost cause and didn't try too hard.

What will happen next?

• Received wisdom is that come the next General Election Labour will win the seat back. Actually I think that whilst this is probable, a lot will depend on the new SNP MP John Mason. If he can hold his Nationalist rhetoric in check and put all his engeries in to being a constituency MP he may win sufficient hearts and minds to scrape in.
• Will this topple Grodon Brown. No! Tony Blair handed Gordon a chalice in which there was a quite a lot of of hemlock. Due to a myriad of factors this has turned into a cocktail of poisons, so much in fact that the Chalice is overflowing. However much Labour MPs plot and plan (which it appears is about all they do when at Westminster), and however much Gordon Brown's personal ratings fall, he is the only Labour Politician capable of being Prime Minister, which is a sad reflection as much on British Politics in general as the Labour Party in particular.
• Will there be an early General Election? I suspect this would be one of David Cameron's nightmares, as if one was called soon he might win. This would mean he would inherit some extremely serious problems that would require making very unpopular decisions. Gordon Brown believes he can weather the current problems and still have enough time to insert enough 'feel good' factors before he has to call an election. The problem for Gordon and Labour is even if they do 'turn things round' David still might win.
• Staying with the Conservatives, whilst the campaign in Glasgow East didn't produce anything of significance in the ballot box, it did win some respect. Maybe this is the time to start a Hearts and Minds push into Scottish constituencies. It took a generation for the Conservative vote in Scotland to collapse, now is the time to start the slow process of winning it back,
• The Lib Dems. I was disappointed in the campaign they ran and prior to the start of the hustings I assumed they would make third with a slight increase in votes. They didn't and I think they should be very concerned about this
  

Winner and Main Loser:

John Mason:
Whilst I am virulently against his Scottish Nationalist agenda, I am beginning to respect the man. Firstly because he has had a real world career outside of politics. He has not played up, or down the fact he is a practising Christian and a Protestant to boot. Whilst I do not agree with many of his views on matters outside the Nationalist Agenda, I do respect that these are sincerely held and that so far he has shown himself to be a man of integrity.I really hope he puts his energies into serving the people of Glasgow East, because what they really need is a constituency MP who will work tirelessly for them, not someone who see them as a stepping stone to furthering their political Career.

Margaret Curran - Labour Candidate:
Whilst she has done Community Work, Margaret Curran is a Career Politician. Enough said!


The Cheshire Cat:
As those of you you follow this blog (and there are a few, a very few), will know I am not only against his Nationalist Agenda, but I dislike Alex Salmond the man.
As the Campaign for Glasgow East built up, the Smug expression, Alex often displays on Camera became more and more pronounced, until it reached the point where like the Cheshire Cats smile, only the Smug Expression remained. Unfortunately the man behind the expression will re-materialise.

Eutelsat drops NTDTV - Technical Problem provides Excuse for a Political Act

On the the Night of the 16/17 June 2008 Eutelsat Satellite W5 suffered a serious technical problem with the power generation sub-system. This required that 4 out of the 24 of the Satellites Transponders were switched off. Obviously the decision to select which transponders were to be taken off line had to be made very quickly and I assumed this used contingency procedures which for the commercial elements were based on Service Level Agreements (SLA) which form part of Contractual Obligations. If these did not provide an answer, then an Operational Manager should have had the authority to make the immediate decision, which could be changed once the situation was fully assessed.

One of the tranpsonders switched off was that supplying the feed for NTDTV (New Tang Dynasty Television) and therefore immediately terminating its broadcasts to China!

This decision was not it appears based an SLA, or an Operations Managers Decision, but was taken by the CEO of Eutelsat and is alleged not to have been based on any Technical, or Contractual requirements, but was a Politically Motivated Decision.

According to RSF (Reporters Without Borders - Reporters Sans Frontieres) the decision to select NTDTV for terminating broadcasts was made by Giuliano Berretta Chairman and CEO of Eutelsat to curry favour with the PRC regime, which has steadfastly sought to shut out all media beyond its censorship control.

The Following is Sourced from RSF and Space Daily
Quote:

According to RSF, a Eutelsat representative in Beijing stated in a recorded conversation:

"It was our company's CEO in France who decided to stop NTDTV's signal.
(...)We could have turned off any of the transponders. (...) It was because we got repeated complaints and reminder from the Chinese government. (...) Two years ago, the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television kept saying the same thing over and over: 'Stop that TV station before we begin to talk."

Since the inception of its broadcast on W5 in 2004, NTDTV has become indispensable to a vast number of Chinese viewers. For matters that concern Chinese people's lives, for what actually happened around them and in the outside world, NTDTV has always been among the first to report the events.

Its timely coverage on current events were vital to the Chinese people, such as reporting on the SARS epidemic three weeks before Beijing owned up to the
problem.

It also focused in on government abuses shielded from the Chinese public view, such as the disproportionate number of school children deaths due to the collapse of shoddily constructed school buildings in the Sichuan earthquake, and the truth about the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre.

With the Beijing Olympics mere weeks away, Chinese people's need for uncensored news has never been greater.

Yet at this critical juncture, Mr. Berretta's decision closed the only window of free information to millions of Chinese people. What the PRC regime has not been able to accomplish for years, Mr. Berretta has delivered by the flip of a switch.

In 2005, when Mr. Berretta attempted to cut off NTDTV's broadcast into China,
Wall Street Journal revealed that he sought to use NTDTV as a pawn to establish
a business relationship with the PRC regime.

International outcry and an outpouring of support for information freedom helped reverse that decision. Today Mr. Berretta is again exposed for repeating his attempt with a more subtle excuse.

The European Union's charter that created Eutelsat required the practice of
non-discrimination, equal access, and respect for media pluralism. Eutelsat's
own corporate description states: "For millions of homes, the Group's satellites
are synonymous with openness and exchange." Mr. Berretta's action has put its
international and European commitments in jeopardy.

A regime that fears the freedom of speech is a weak regime. Any corporation
seeking favour from such a regime is sacrificing long-term benefits for short-term gains.

Unquote
So what gains does Giuliano Berretta expect to get from the success of his second attempt to stop NTDTV broadcasting to its audience in China?

Well: Eutelsat and Thales, the French company that made the satellite, are doing more and more business in China. It was Thales that manufactured Zhongxing-9, the satellite that was put in orbit last month to guarantee good coverage of the Olympic Games. Eutelsat has signed a contract with China to use its Long March rocket to launch Eutelsat satellites.

The Wall Street Journal wrote in April: “Eutelsat for years has been trying to find a way to penetrate the Chinese market, and launch contracts are widely seen as one way to help reach that goal.”

Although obliged to respect the principles of equality of access, pluralism and non-discrimination enshrined in article 3 of a convention governing the operations of satellite companies, Eutelsat appears decided it can ignore the convention and operate as censor all in the name of kowtowing to the PRC for commercial gain!

Eutelsat-IGO (currently with a membership of 47 States) and the European Commission (which could for once do something useful) need to be investigating Mr Berretta's handling of this situation!

In the meantime there needs to be a repeat of the international outcry that reversed Mr Berretta's first attempt to censor NTDTV.

As for W5, although the failure occurred in mid-June, the Technical Investigation and attempts to regain full operation of the W5 Satellite have only just been completed. The conclusion us that there is no hope of returning it to full service and that only 20 Transponders will be available for the rest of the satellites life.

Lisbon Treaty - Time to Give HMG a Wake-up Call vote UKIP

The Lisbon Treaty - What is it all about:
Well the Treaty we are told is designed to 'streamline' the functioning of the EU -
Well read it for yourself here (only 479 Pages) Consolidated treaties As a cure for insomnia excellent, but perhaps reading the Wikipedia Entry will be less of a chore.

No then here is a very brief summary:
Quote:
Prominent changes introduced with the Treaty of Lisbon include:

• Reduced chances of stalemate in the EU Council through more qualified majority voting
• A more significant European Parliament through extended co-decision with the EU Council
• Reduction of the number of Commissioners from 27 to 18,
• Scrapping of the pillar system
• Creation of a President of the European Council
• Creation of a High Representative for Foreign Affairs for greater coherence and continuity in EU policies.
• make the Charter of Fundamental Rights (human rights provisions) legally binding.

Unquote

Now your all finally clear on what this treaty means for us the individual, let us move on:
Now that Eire has rejected the Treaty, it should be dead, but Gordon Brown it appears is determined to continue ratifying the Lisbon Treaty. He has even got it through the Lords, despite some reasoned arguments for delaying ratification (OK there were some less reasoned arguments as well).
Sorry Prime Minister you cannot ratify something that has been demoncratically rejected by the voters in an EU State!

I watched, initially with some interest David Cameron and Gordon Brown having a face-off on the Lisbon Treaty at Prime Ministers Questions and my mind wandered off the rhetoric and began to think of ways British Electors could voice concerns over the Governments policy are regards the Lisbon Treaty in particular, but the more general policy of its willingness to handover sovereign powers to the European Commission. In fact some aspects of this have a certain irony as this Government has 'talked big' about devolving power to the regions, whilst handing power to the European Commission, an organisation which is increasingly viewed as both undemocratic and untrustworthy.

I had better state I am not actually anti-European as I believe that many of the pan-European institutions, especially those dealing with Technical Matters and Standards and plus cross EU co-operation on many important matters such as Policing and Security have been and continue to bring positive benefits. The less politicians are involved the more efficient and effective these institutions seem to function as they are staffed by those with the Technical Knowledge and Practical Experience required. Although Political oversight is necessary these work best when Politicians don't get involved day to day and the issues being dealt with are technical, or cross-border procedural.

I do believe it is better for the United Kingdom to be part of the EU, than not. What I am increasingly concerned about is the growth of the European Commission as a Sovereign Entity can ignore the wishes of the electorate of Member States and can still workaround the wishes of the European Parliament.

So I want the powers of the European Commission be reduced rather than extended and it should only be able to introduce any legislation after it has passed acceptance by both the European Parliament and then the agreement of all Ministers of Member states.

So what can the concerned British voter do. Well unless a bye-election called in your constituency, in which case register a protest vote against the Government (even if traditionally you were a Labour Voter), but for most of us it is a case of wait patiently until June next year and then do something that in the past too many have avoided doing - Vote in the European Elections. Then regardless of party affiliation, or loyalty vote UKIP.

Enjoy the wave of shock horror that will then pass through the Westminster Village, but also discover that the European Parliament can have meaningful debates on matters that affect us!

Safety Test Failed, Not if we change the Paperwork

The Armed Forces Minister and Head of the Royal Navy publicly apologised on the 12th June for grievous "systemic failings" that led to two Royal Navy Crew being killed by an underwater explosion whilst working on Oxygen Units aboard HMS Tireless which was on exercise off Alaska last year.

This apology followed as the result of the publication of the report from the Board of Enquiry which detailed failures in:

• acquisition
• manufacture
• transport
• storage
• stowage and logistics management

Which covers just about everything. Except the report didn't stop there as it concluded the MoD had a:

• Lack of Understanding
• Lack of Quality Control

So in Summary the Ministry of Defence was incompetent.

But it does get worse:
The inquiry discovered some of the units were left in the open at the dockside for up to two weeks before being installed in the submarines, and that other oxygen generators which had failed manufacturers' safety checks may have also been put into service.

In the ministers statement, he included the following:
Quote
"I am extremely sorry, particularly to the families of those who lost their lives or were injured." The board of inquiry found that 996 "self-contained oxygen generators" used in Royal Navy subs had been found to be faulty and subsequently brought back into service. The paperwork relating to them had been altered"
Unquote

Ah now we move from incompetence and negligence and into a whole new ball game called : Criminal Mismanagement and Falsification of Records (in this case Safety Related).

One assumes Criminal Proceedings with be brought against any Civilians involved and Court Martial for those serving in the Armed Forces.
Sorry I am was being naive for a moment, no the reality will probably be the culture within the MoD will not change, the guilty will go unpunished and the MoD with its part-time political Master will continue on their merry way, apologising when its failures kill service personnel, because apologising doesn't cost money, whereas doing what is required does!

Eire Votes No to the Lisbon Treaty

The Lisbon Treaty forms a replacement for the EU Constitution, which was rejected due to Referendums in France and Holland resulting in a majority for rejection.

The Lisbon Treaty has been described as the 'Stealth Version' of the EU Constitution. The Government in the UK 'weaselled' its way out of a British Referendum (as it was only promised for the Constitution not its replacement) and other EU Governments have also avoided putting the Treaty to their voters, it was left to the Irish, whose Government had no choice under the Eire Constitution but to hold a Referendum, to effectively give voice to the grave concerns of, I suspect a majority of voters in the main EU Countries.

The Eire Referendum result should, under EU Rules mean the Lisbon Treaty is dead. But not only are EU Officials working hard to keep it alive (and having already, prior to acceptance started the implementation process), but the majority of Member Governments seem desperate to ensure ratification of the treaty goes ahead.

Only the Czech President it appears understands the EU Rules and has publicly stated that 'The treaty was finished, since any further ratification was impossible'.

I am extremely concerned that having 'ducked and dived' their way out of a UK Referendum British Ministers seem determined to continue ratification of a treaty which cannot actually be implemented under EU Rules. I find the HM Government stance on this totally unacceptable.

This Government avoided a Referendum because they feared they would not only lose, but lose heavily and yet at every opportunity they praise British Democracy and 'snipe' at other countries lack of democratic government. Bunch of hypocrites.

Bournemouth Aviation Museum Closure

Update 28th October 2008
See Post Bournemouth Aviation Museum Reopens

Original Article
I maintain a list of United Kingdom Aviation Museums I want to visit and so far haven't. This has become almost masochistic as there is now an even longer list of UK Aviation Museum I wanted to visit, never did and cannot now because they closed. Admittedly most of these were small andwere probably unsustainable as organisations, but over the years a number have been major collections, and each closure resulted in a pang of regret.

The closure of the Bournemouth Aviation Museum and the organisations ongoing attempts to retrieve the situation has made me annoyed. In part because Bournemouth Airport has a very important place in British Aviation History, because the collection whilst not huge contains some important exhibits and finally because this situation, despite a lot of effort reached the point where the Museum Closed and is now 'homeless'.

Now Bournemouth Airport is currently owned by Manchester Airport Group which is owned by a group of Councils in and around Greater Manchester. Manchester Airport maintains a the 'Viewing Park' which includes a Concorde and restored Trident 3B, plus a forward section of a DC10, so they cannot be entirely Aviation Heritage unfriendly.

So what happened at Bournemouth. Well firstly the Museum did only have a short lease, which the Airport decided they could not renew because of development plans affecting the Museum Building and surrounding land. Whilst the development in this area, is apparently provide a new Car Park, it is part of the Airports Master Plan and whilst I am sure being replaced by a Car Park really irks the Museum Team, this should not be an issue. The Airport and Museum principals held many meetings once the non-renewal of the lease was advised in an attempt to find alternatives within the Airport Perimeter. But all to no avail.

The Museum had to go and by a set date and that is that. Well this is when I do get a trifle annoyed. I accept the Airports Commercial Interests come first and that they have provided the Museum with 'Some wriggle room', but if they really wanted the Museum on their land would have been looking at how they could have included it in the master plan and consultations should have been ongoing when the lease was signed.

Secondly although MAG trumpets their Community friendly credentials at no stage have they appeared to have considered how they could mitigate the Museums Problems in relocation, After all the Museum is a registered Charity with a high dependency on volunteers, plus it has exhibits important to UK Aviation Heritage and in some cases very significant to Bournemouth Airports past, plus it was an educational resource, all of which should give high ranking in the MAG Bournemouth Community Projects Fund. Whilst other Airport Tenants have assisted, or at least tried very hard to assist the Museum in the lead up to the final eviction date, the MAG Management at Bournemouth other than offering the aforesaid 'wriggle room' have provided no practical help. (If I am wrong I will unreservedly apologise).

Whilst it is obvious the new Museum Trustees are making progress in finding a new home, and have at least local Political support for their efforts, they are inevitably going to lose most if not all of the revenue from this summer. Volunteers and equipment loans can cover a lot of financial holes, but funding and survival are irretrievably linked and maybe this is where MAG should help. After all they are part of the continuing story of Bournemouth Airport and therefore this is their heritage too!

Well time will tell, but unfortunately I am not optimistic that MAG will assist financially and although I believe the Museum will survive it will take a long time to recover, plus there will now always be a feeling of resentment between the Museum and MAG, which will fester for many years. MAG is certainly well within its legal rights. The Museum did make an assumption that the lease would be renewed. But was there consultation between tenants and the Airport over how the Master plan would affect them, if so it is apparent the current Museum Trustees were not party to any consultation.

Heritage can be good for Business and Business can be good for Heritage, but far too often in this country the two collide because neither thinks ahead.

Losing the Bournemouth Aviation Museum completely would almost certainly bolster other collections as exhibits would transfer across, but inevitably some would be lost. The real loss would be the link with Bournemouth's Aviation past and once its gone, it can never be brought back.

Data Center Outage and the Contingency Plan Cannot be Implemented!

In the late afternoon of the 31st May (16:55 CDT) The Planet's H1 Data Center in Houston Texas went off line due a power failure.
Not I hasten to add any old power failure, as the The Planet System and Network Status Forum explained:
Quote:
This evening at 4:55pm CDT in our H1 data center, electrical gear shorted, creating an explosion and fire that knocked down three walls surrounding our electrical equipment room. Thankfully, no one was injured. In addition, no customer servers were damaged or lost.
Unquote:
For any company the above would be a challenge to both Contingency and Business Continuity handling, but 'The Planet' is not just any business and Data Centre H1 is not just any Data Center. 'The Planet' is a major Web Hosting Company and Data Center H1 was 'inherited' when it merged with Everyones Internet (EV1) which was formerly RackShack. and was the original RackShack Data Center, which means its server farms include many legacy systems.

So this situation was not just an internal problem for 'The Planet' but a very serious Business Continuity Problem for the 7,500 Customers with a total of 9000 Servers depending on this Data Centre..

Could things get any worse? - Oh Yes it can!
The Building is evacuated, the Fire Department are in charge and even with the fire out they will not allow implementation of the Back-up Power Plan for safety reasons and finally they won't let staff back into the Building.

The company did what it could in the first few Hours after the explosion:

• It started to alert Internal, Contractor and Supplier teams and began moving them to site
• It start to alert Customers via Forum and Automated Voice Service and through one Customer Portal (the other was hosted in the affected center and was down).

Because of the confused situation and without being allowed into the building to assess damage, the first meaningful information could not be posted until 4 Hours after the incident.

From then on the company posted updates either to a 1 hour base schedule, or more often whenever there was 'breaking news,.even if the news was bad!
For many updates there was little to report, but the temptation to make rash promises was resisted.

This policy of NOT raising Customer expectations too high was proved the correct course when it was discovered the damage to power cabling was even greater than suspected. By lateral thinking, plus the use of additional generators and 'blood, sweat and tears' step by step recovery moved forward.

You can look at Bulletins to Customers - Current to Oldest here:
The Planet H1 Maintenance Updates
or in Oldest to Current here :
The Planet System & Network Forum

Whilst 56 Hours later recovery was not fully complete the CEO felt able to issue this audio statement: Doug Erwin, chairman and CEO of The Planet

Fifty Six hours without service is for a company dependent on internet sales a disaster and a lot of customers are obviously angry and concerned, worried sick about their business, but 56 Hours is a lot better than some original estimates of 5 Days.

Whilst The Planet is going to have to deal with the aftermath of this incident in terms of Customer claims and possibly litigation, I believe that Operationally and from a Customer Advisory Viewpoint the Company did everything it should and could.

It is rightly proud of the 24 Hour a day efforts from its staff many brought in from Dallas and the speed and effectiveness of Contractor and Supplier teams also working 24 Hours a day.

Whilst Operationally I admire the company's management of the incident, I am concerned that there maybe some questions over Contingency Planning and Risk Management including Safety Inspection Policies.

Whilst Web Site and Server Hosting is lucrative it is also extremely competitive and therefore the possibility of mass migration of Customers to a fall back site, or dispersing them across other data centres was never part of the equation for handling this incident and I suspect would not be an economic proposition (although offering it as a premium option could possibly make sense).

However I do think that during the 'lessons learned studies' some consideration is given to looking at how all the 'single point of failure' situations (not just electrical) can be mitigated, not only in H1 but across other Company Data Centers .

I also hope that the legal eagles allow The Planet to share the results of the investigations and studies industry wide as this is NOT about a marketing war, it is about safety and customer confidence that its Web Site, which for many is the core of the business is well protected.

Initially some 'The Planet' customers may feel moving to another host is the answer, but would they be able to handle a similar problem any better than 'The Planet' and would they the Customer be willing to pay the premium required for mirroring across Data Centers to provide guaranteed fallback! In most cases probably not

Throughout the industry worldwide today, there is almost certainly the feeling that 'thank God it wasn't us' and then the depressing thought: 'this time'.
There is probably one group of people seeing a 'silver lining; in all this: Insurers, who I suspect are already drafting new improved Business Continuity Insurance for Internet Dependent SME Businesses.

The Idle Man.
.

Mobile Phone - How many Features if any, do you need?

The release of the Hop1800 'voice only, no screen' Mobile from Hop-On has made me think, what features of my Mobile do I use and I came up with a short list?

• Address Book for Voice/Text/Email and as a quick look-up for Landline, Fax Numbers and Email Addresses.
  
• Voice Calls
• Hands Free
  
• Text Messages (Many more in, mainly from Services such as Voicemail)
  
• Email (Mainly out - Passing Notes about me being delayed enroute)
  
• Camera (once in a blue moon).
• Internet (once in a blue moon).

One feature I sometimes think I might use one day is a data service connection for my Laptop, but the requirement has never arisen. So in theory I am using a reasonable number of features, but what if they weren't there?

• No Address Book - Back to good old Filofax :-)
• No Hands Free - Even Safer Driving as I wouldn't have the Phone Switched on.
  
• No Text Messaging - Have to check Voicemail after meetings, etc, otherwise inconvenient, but I think l I could learn to live without it very quickly.
• No Email - Not really a problem, if it wasn't there!
  
• Camera - If didn't have it, it wouldn't be missed.
• Internet - If didn't have it, it wouldn't be missed.

Now I accept that some of the above might be more of a problem if I didn't have a laptop, but for me the core requirements are:

1. Voice Calls.
2. Voicemail.

So what would happen if I stopped having a mobile?
As I have always treated Mobile Phones as a communication tool, not a necessary part of my lifestyle, I suspect that for a week I would be extremely irritated it was no longer available, but I also suspect those people used to calling me on the Mobile would be annoyed. In the longer term I would probably find that people would consider it very odd I didn't have one (in the 1990's I spent five years without a Television, something that was always treated with utter amazement and disbelieve).

To end, a couple of idle thoughts:
So how would others cope without a Mobile?
What would be the consequences of every mobile network going off-air for 24 hours?

Finally who is going to buy a very basic mobile like the HOP 1800 in Western Europe and North America?
OK other than Criminals, Terrorists and those who just want an emergency phone.
Actually the above probably means there is sufficient market for this type of device!

Nimrod exposes contempt for Armed Forces

Not my Headline (I wish it was), but from a Daily Telegraph Article by Con Coughlin.
Not only is it an interesting Article in its own right, but the comments from readers struck me as both pertinent and interesting. To give you a sample the following is that last paragraph of Con Couglin's Article:
Quote:
Des Browne, the Defence Secretary, seemingly so underemployed at the Ministry of Defence that he also finds time to be Scottish Secretary, has admitted that two thirds of the Nimrods are “not fit for purpose”, but has done little to rectify the situation. He should hang his head in shame.
Unquote
In another time perhaps the last sentence would have read: He should Hang.

Now one of the Comments from a reader - It is long, but worth reading:
Quote:
The MOD have always possessed an accountant driven mentality instead of an operational requirement ethos towards military kit.

I was in the services when the Nimrod started to replace the Shackleton, back in the late 60’s, and the general consensus then, was that it was an extensively modified cobbled up Comet, with Spey engines. That it is still in service today as further modified variants are wheeled out, is a remarkable achievement in cost cutting, but not much else.

After the MR2 exploded over Kandahar, with the cause known to be related to in flight refuelling operations, remarkably a second incident took place on 5th November 2007 to a second MR2, (XV235), also over Afghanistan, while the investigation into the loss of XV230 was ongoing. This incident also occurred during in-flight refuelling when the crew called a Mayday after observing leaking fuel. They managed to land the aircraft. It was only after the second incident, that in flight refuelling was suspended for this type, and it was only due to providence that a second aircraft was not lost.

The board of Inquiry into XV235 deduced that the most probable cause, was escaped fuel contacting an air pipe at 400 degrees Celcius, after penetrating between two layers of insulation. Contributory factors were listed as:Age of the aircraft; Maintenance policy; Failure of hazard analysis and lack of a fire detection and suppression system; and, not identifying the full implications of successive changes to the fuel system and associated procedures.

Back in 1992 a program for replacement for the MR2 was started, the Nimrod MRA4
(New engines in refurbished airframes) was selected in 1996. This was delayed because the airframes supplied to BAe systems were non standard. ‘In service’ date had slipped from 2003 to 2009, and by 2005 the cost jumped from £2.8 billion to £3.5 billion, meaning the RAF would get fewer planes.

Sadly, the Nimrod is not alone in the tragedy of errors

The Hercules shot down over Baghdad was operating without self sealing fuel tanks in a war zone. Another cost saving?

link

I think the British owe their aircrews better than this.

The MOD and successive governments, have treated the military as nothing more than a cost cutting exercises for decades. This government in particular goes down in history with a part-time defence secretary, to emphasize the low priority which Labour assigns to the military. With soldiers still being sent out in ‘snatch’ Land Rovers, it is little wonder that the RAF is flying antique junk.

Posted as a comment to the Telegraph Article by Michael Barningham on May 23, 2008 10:13 PM
Unquote

Delaying the Nimrod Replacement - Tragic and Symbolic

A replacement for, or at least a complete ground up rebuild of the RAF Nimrod Fleet has been on the agenda for so long that I think it dates back to the late 1990's. But HMG have always tried to move it to the 'back burner', whilst at the same time trying to find means of justifying the delay as both reasonable, prudent and as an after thought operationally acceptable.

Back in 2004 they were looking for another delay and decided to spend some money on commissioning a report from BAE to confirm sorry that should be see, if it was safe to delay replacement, despite the subsequent report warning that: There had been 880 fires or "smoke-related incidents" on Nimrods in the past 22 years and that hot air pipes in the bomb bay were too close to the key elements of the fuel system. If a fire broke out in the bomb bay, there was no way of extinguishing it.

The report urged the Ministry of Defence (MoD) to fit a fire suppression system in the bomb bay, but the warning was ignored.

A further report, this time by QinetiQ in 2006:
Blamed the Nimrod’s age and the "intense" way in which the aircraft were flown for what it described as a "critical" structural problem. The warning was ignored was again ignored.

Failure to proceed with the replacement programme in 2004 following the BAE Report was unacceptable, failure to act following the QinentiQ Report is criminally culpable.

But despite the clarity of the warnings the Government continued with its policy of delaying the programme until 2010.

Meanwhile the Nimrod Fleet which was only 21 Aircraft with only around 11 serviceable at any given time was being tasked at War Levels of operations. Like the rest of the British Armed Services, Nimrod and her crews were being stretched at a level of Operations the Government required, but the same Government was not willing to correctly finance.

A Nimrod Crash in November 2004 was caused by the same faults identified in two separate reports that were ignored. The Death of the 14 Crew of Nimrod XV230 in September 2007 was as a direct result of those reports being ignored as it was caused by the faults identified in these reports. Criminal Negligence on the part of the MOD, RAF and Government?

Today and every day Nimrod Crews take an Aircraft based on the Comet Airliner of the 1950's and which was actually built in the 1960's on missions over land that is a War Zone, or over the unforgiving Sea.

The very fact they continue to do this makes them heroes and brings shame on those Politicians who didn't do what was absolutely necessary in 2004 and absolutely vital in 2006, but still sit in Government.
The MOD and at least some Senior RAF Officer are also culpable and I suggest in certain cases Criminal Trial and Court Marshals maybe appropriate.

The Crash of Nimrod XV230 is both tragic and Symbolic of this Governments entire attitude to the Armed Services (and indeed the Emergency Services) . In that they will perform miracles on the minimum, whilst we spend money on what will keep us in power.

Unfortunately whilst this Government has been spectacularly inept in keeping its attitude to Defence concealed, history consistently teaches us when HMG commits the Armed Forces to fight it always states these forces are correctly equipped and all their requirements have been and will continue to be fully met.
Just as consistently our Soldiers, Sailors and Airmen have paid for these lies with their lives.

At least in previous times we could have expected those responsible to at the very least resign, not just from their post, but from public life. Now they not only keep their job, or get another, but rarely even apologise!

Police Pay - Two Nations and Jan Berry

For most of the UK's Police Services the Government in Westminster refused to implement the Police Arbitration Tribunal's 2.5% Pay Award back-dated to September 2007 in full, but to stage it, so as to save 30 Million Pounds (but the Government had no problem finding 2.7 Billion Pounds in a failed attempt to save a by-election). In Scotland however the Tribunal' recommendation was accepted and Officers will receive the full amount back-dated to September - So much for One Nation!

Now I have never been a Police Officer but I found this refusal to accept the Arbitration Boards Decision, especially when the Teachers Arbitration Board Recommendations had been fully accepted a disgrace. But when the situation results in a two nations Police Pay Standard I find the situation totally unacceptable.

Whilst I am only a Grumpy and who cares what I think, Jan Berry the outgoing Chair of the Police Federation in England and Wales, does at least have to be listened to!

Having seen excerpts from her Keynote speech to the Police Federation of England and Wales Conference, I was so impressed I decided to check out the full text which can be found here:
Jan Berry's Keynote Speech In PDF Format.

I am not a Trade Unionist by nature (I still carry very bad memories of my virtually enforced membership of the TGWU in the 1970's and the rantings of Paid Officials, Conveners and Shop Stewards in 1980's).

But Jan Berry has impressed me so much that once she has had time to recharge her batteries after six years as Federation Chair, I hope she considers a Career either in Politics as a back bench MP. or in the Media on a flagship Programme such as BBC Newsnight. In either role she would truly be performing a Public Service to the Nation, of in an erudite and compelling way exposing the crass behaviour of Government Ministers.

Nick Robinson's News Blog had an item on the Federation Conference entitled:
Police beat up defenceless woman
Unfortunately he did not include the phrase 'and She Throughly Deserved It', so I will!

MPs Panic - Over Saving the Country, err No Saving their Jobs

On Television an evening or two before the by-election at Crewe and Nantwich, a respected politician on a Panel stated that people didn't go into Politics for the money, but Public Service. The other Politicians on the Panel nodded sagely in agreement and I suppressed a wry smile and switched over to a factual programme.

Fast forward until the Morning after the by-election and the headlines many of which followed the theme of:
Labour MPs Panic. Why was the Country being plunged into chaos, was an invasion force heading into the beaches, had the commons bar run dry, or was it because their expenses were going to be exposed to public scrutiny?

No as based on the Result, if a General Election was called in a month or two, many of them would lose their Jobs (many in seats previously considered safe). This would not only mean loss of a reasonable salary (which they effectively set themselves - which I am sure the Police Find Ironic), but all those allowances.

So instead of rallying around the Government as members of a party should, they started not only to panic about their futures, but began to indulge in the only thing they do well back-stabbing!

Public Service, no Self-serving!

It is an old saw that a Country gets the Politicians it deserves, on this basis we must have done something really bad.

The Murder of Captain Nairac - Two Suspects still Safe in the USA

With the arrest of and subsequent court appearance of Kevin Crilly the Torture and subsequent Murder of Captain Robert Nairac is back in the news

Although Kevin Crilly has been released on bail (which I find strange even by the standard of NI judiciary favouring former members of the IRA, due the Peace Accords), the question is which haven for Terrorists has been sheltering Mr Crilly since 1977 – Libya which had links with the IRA by shipping them Arms, Marxist Rebels in Columbia, who used IRA Men as Instructors, or some other shadowy group, or regime?

Well none of the above, as like many terrorists of his ilk he found sanctuary in the United States of America along with two other suspects to the Murder of Captain Robert Naira.

Now the Nairac Case has been revitalised, the police are in discussions with the US Authorities over extraditing the two remaining suspects. I wish them luck, as I covered America’s habit of sheltering Terrorists in a post on the UK-US Extradition Treaty back in August 2006. However I do think it is worth remembering the Crime these men committed which should have them in front of the War Crimes Tribunal In the Hague, not facing some pathetic two year sentence under the Northern Island Peace Accords:

The following is taken from the George Cross Database and formed part of my post:
Pondering on three types of Courage from May 2005

Quote
On the night of 14/15 May 1977 Captain Nairac was abducted from a village in South Armagh by at least seven men. Despite his fierce resistance he was overpowered and taken across the border into the nearby Republic of Ireland where he was subjected to a succession of exceptionally savage assaults in an attempt to extract information which would have put other lives and future operations at serious risk. These efforts to break Captain Nairac's will failed entirely. Weakened as he was in strength-though not in spirit-by the brutality, he yet made repeated and spirited attempts to escape, but on each occasion was eventually overpowered by the weight of the numbers against him. After several hours in the hands of his captors Captain Nairac was callously murdered by a gunman of the Provisional Irish Republican Army who had been summoned to the scene. His assassin subsequently said "He never told us anything".
Captain Nairac's exceptional courage and acts of the greatest heroism in circumstances of extreme peril showed devotion to duty and personal courage second to none.”
Unquote

I hope the United States is proud that it has sheltered the Cowardly Murderers of such a brave man for 30 Years because it has no moral right to say that it is the Leader on the War Against Terror, whilst providing sanctuary for Terrorists!

Spare a thought and maybe more for our Armed Forces this Christmas

While we fight the effects over indulgence and over spending during this celebration of the birth of Christ, followed by the welcoming of the New Year. Spare a thought for those to whom this festive season is another day of fighting on the front line and another day of worry for their families back here in the UK.

Forget the politicians, our soldiers, sailors and airmen are fighting not for them, but Queen and Country and they deserve our wholehearted support, if nothing more then remember them in your prayers, but if you want to do more, then check out:

Baroness Sayeeda Warsi warns British Muslims against ‘victim culture’

From the Times Online
Philippe Naughton

Conservative peer Baroness Sayeeda Warsi has warned UK Muslims of the dangers of victim culture

The Conservative peer who helped negotiate the release of the primary school teacher jailed in Sudan for allowing her pupils to name a teddy bear Mohamed attacked her fellow British Muslims today for their “victim culture”.

Baroness Warsi, a Conservative spokeswoman on community cohesion, also criticised Labour for its “patronage politics” and for having encouraged the “divisive concept” of multiculturalism.

Lady Warsi, 36, born to Pakistani parents in Dewsbury, Yorkshire, is the youngest member of the House of Lords. She came to public notice earlier this month when she was asked by Lord Ahmed, a Labour peer, to accompany him to Sudan to mediate the release of Gillian Gibbons, who had been jailed for insulting Islam.

The situation in Sudan had been extraordinary and “thankfully” could never happen in the UK, Lady Warsi told a race relations conference in London this morning.

“And yet it had echoes of situations we do get in Britain,” she added, describing how cultural misunderstandings had exacerbated a local problem, which had then been taken up by religious and political leaders “busting for a fight”.

“These three factors – local disputes, cultural misunderstandings and hardliners stirring up trouble – these are very familiar to us in Britain,” she said.

It was entirely possible to respect religious doctrine while living within a democracy, Lady Warsi
said. To do so successfully, it was crucial to make the distinction between religious faith and cultural practice.

“This distinction is vital because there is a growing tendency among some people to describe what are really social expectations – and often pretty dubious ones – as religious requirements".

“…British Muslims have the foremost responsibility here,” she added. “As long as the Muslim community remains in a victim culture, a siege mentality, they allow others to control the debate".

“When it comes to Islam, the majority of Muslims understand the difference between culture and religion. It’s not for others to tell Muslims what is and isn’t Islam. It’s for the community, and in that I include myself, to expound the truth about our faith – not let others interpret it for us. It is for us to be the change – not let others impose it on us. ”

Lady Warsi, who is thought to be the first British Muslim to serve in either the Cabinet or Shadow Cabinet, pointed out that she had gone to Sudan with a Labour peer and had been proud to be part of a bipartisan effort where party differences did not matter.

“But this is not to say that there are no differences between the parties when it comes to cohesion at home,” she added.

“For me, cohesion means that where there is local diversity, different races and religions get along.
Cohesion should never mean multiculturalism, in the way that this concept has been translated by Labour: the doctrine of separate identity, with each group encouraged to feel that identity requires the expression of difference to the point of hostility.

“Multiculturalism has been manipulated to entrench the right to difference, a divisive concept, at the expense of the right to equal treatment despite difference, a unifying concept. And the fact that cohesion is local, means Labour get it wrong when they go in the other direction too. After years of promoting top-down multiculturalism, Gordon Brown is now promoting top-down unity.”

She went on: “Of course, localism has to be in the context of a national consciousness – and that’s why I want us to reverse the failed state multicultural approach and ensure there is sufficient English language teaching for new arrivals, and proper teaching of English history for our children so that they have a deep understanding of our great institutions and how they came to be as they are.

“But to me, Britishness means the opposite of what it means to Gordon. I was bought up to believe that being British meant you didn’t go on about it! It’s not about planting flags on lawns, or inventing a new Veterans Day – as if we should celebrate our country by importing traditions from America.
“Gordon is even consulting far and wide on six words, a motto believe it or not, that encapsulates our nation. Well let me tell him: you’re searching for something you won’t find.

“Britishness is not something that can be put in words. It is about institutions, and traditions, and the shared values which are often felt more than spoken.” Source

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This Article has appeared on other Blogs as well as on the Times Online but I feel it is worth republishing here. If the copytight holder objects I shall of course remove it.

Thank You Lord Ahmed and Baroness Warsi

In my last post I was extremely critical of the lack of proactive action by British Muslims in ensuring the idiotic behaviour of their coreligionists in the Sudan in even bringing to trial a British Primary School Teacher who was in the Sudan to help, not as part of some Western Crusader Plot (What drugs are these people taking), let alone jailing her, was resolved.

Fortunately Lord Ahmed and Baroness Warsi, did the correct and honourable thing and flew out to talk to the one Man who could overrule the ignorant clerics and the incompetent judiciary.

I am sure they had to exercise considerable, tact and diplomacy, but thanks to their efforts Gillian Gibbons is now free and back in the UK - So thank you my Lady and my Lord..

Whilst in the Lords, Baroness Warsi sits on the Conservative benches and Lord Ahmed on the Labour side of their Lordships House, they joined together in a common cause and retrieved what had already become a serious situation and was in danger of escalating.

These two Muslim Peers have done much to restore some faith that there are those, at least in the 'Muslim Establishment', who are true to both their faith and their country.

Unfortunately I believe there are far too many who hide behind Islam, but have nothing but loathing for this Country whether of their Birth,or because they obtained Citizenship.

The Muslim communities need to follow these Peers example and to take the correct and honourable course of action and assist the authorities in rooting out these corrupt Islamists and expose them for what they are, a cancer in our society that needs to be rooted out.