RAF Tornado Retires

I'm quite sad to see the retirement of an icon of my age, born in 1978 I saw the Tornado come into service and has a lad had a cool postcard poster of one coming into land, it was such a modern thing and to my eyes still is, the forward angle on the air intakes, the vaunted carrying capacity and the potential for this pan European jet to enter service and serve us well.

Which she has, the Tornado has been a mainstay for the RAF, its replacement isn't even clear cut, as the aircraft was so versatile, we see the Eurofighter Typhoon taking on the air-superiority and potentially some of the light strike capabilities, we see the F35 coming over from the US to augment the fighter force, but they're machines at the moment, they're things.  The Tornado for me, she has a certain personality.

RAF Typhoon Retirement - Disgrace!

I am shocked and appalled to read that the number of RAF fighters is to drop to an all time low, not least because part of the fleet being retired is the first tranche of Euro-fighter Typhoon jets.... Now, I have a long history with the Euro-fighter, I actually "flew" it in 1994, that is I played the EF2000 Simulator on my Pentium 60Mhz PC at the time... And we expected this amazing new jet to enter service soon...

But soon was almost a joke, the first jets only reached RAF hands on the 9th August 2007... Just look at those dates again... 1994 to 2007... That's eleven years... Eleven years from a simulated touted version, it was for a long time meant to be the new fighter for the RAF to take them into the new millennium, it was the Euro-fighter 2000, then the Euro-fighter Typhoon 2000, and then when the calendar over marched progress on production it became just the Typhoon... And still even more years before it was in squadron hands.

Before the computer game, the real aircraft had finally taken it's first flight just a couple of years before in 1994, but it had been touted as in design for a decade at least by then already!  I'd seen news of it at Farnborough for year upon year, but that plane never wanted to appear.

What's this got to do with today's cuts in 2015?... Well, they're retiring 53 of the first tranche of Typhoons... So those planes delivered in just 2007... That's about the same age as my car... This is a total disgrace!  Just shy of twelve years service, and they're binning them, we don't have dry deserts in which to moth ball aircraft, we don't have hermetically sealed hangars, so these planes are going to be dumped, scrapped, destroyed.

We already lost our fast-jet fleet ability pending the even more delayed F35B, and now we're throwing away Typhoons!

This is senseless... Ridiculous, and perilous with Russian aircraft buzzing our borders!

BBC Story (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-33618484)

Scottish Independence - A Sad Rant

Scotland, Scotland, Scotland... I don't know how to really express how I feel about even talking about the Independence Vote... I... I really can't believe its being even considered by a single Scot, not only do I feel its just a strange topic of conversation, but Scotland is part of the United Kingdom, it just is, its something lived with something that just is...

Now, I know there are many Scots with a beef about things like, regional autonomy, like they think they've got a hard deal... I've heard things like the closing of Scottish Industry being a major factor in the numbers of unemployed in Scotland, and that being all "London's" fault.

But, the companies which closed were pretty much private companies, just like the companies in Sheffield, Birmingham, Southampton, Bristol and elsewhere throughout the UK.

Industry has reduced, closed and moved, that's a fact of the whole British Isles, not specific to Scotland, yet I hear Scots bemoaning their being specially put down...

The likes of Billy Connelly, whom makes me laugh, but when he appears waxing lyrical about the ship yards on the Clyde and then declaring his support for an Independent Scotland, he's linking the two, the closed industry with the Union, where as the two have no real connection.

And Connelly himself, he has no vote, he lives overseas; in Australia mainly I believe, but he's been wheeled out twice... Notably getting air time during the Glasgow Games opening.

Other Scots who live outside of Scotland also don't get a vote, many of whom as I've spoken to a few, would vote NO to an independent Scotland.  And they'd vote no for similar reasons as I feel, that we're stronger together, safer together, that we're more than a United Kingdom, we're a united people.

And my deep personal suspicion is that Alex Salmond is pushing this agenda because he really seems to want to get himself noticed, to get himself into the History books.  There are no real long term benefits to Scotland leaving the Union, there is only long term costs and burden to her people.

I can't speak for everyone, but this is very much like a family fued and one member is about to storm out... The difference is, instead of a dinner going cold, or a few snide remarks next Christmas, this is going to end up costing BILLIONS.

People, companies, livlihoods and services are going to be ruined.

I personally as a UK Tax payer don't want to support a struggling independent Scotland, and the figured given for the Independent lobby don't stack up.

With all the firms already saying they would relocate if the country left the Union, its going to leave much of Western Scotland barren of employment.  Glasgow is going to suffer most I believe.

Aberdeen would see a marginal increase in lucrative Oil money as everyone cashes out for the next 20 years, but come 2034 I strongly believe there will be massive defecits, services would start to crumble and I have to say there may even be an exodus of the able and qualified to English and Welsh locations, followed as the quaffers run sterile to a gaping problem in Scottish communities.

Alex Salmond if not buried by then would be a very old man, he'll be happily tucked up in his adult nappy with a glass of Scotch each night and happy his mark was made.

The people of Scotland will be bereft however, and I have to admit as an Englishman I feel snubbed and insulted that there is this faction of Scottish society whom want to be an independent nation without any thought of who they are where they come from.

Many of the kids of my generation will have had grandparents who fought in the second world war, indeed my own grandfather was in Scotland serving when Rudolf Hess landed there.  My grandfather was the segergant whom guarded him; and was the only guard Hess thanked before he was transferred south.

These links to history, this structure of who Scotland, who WE are is simply being ignored by the "Yes" campaign.

I've hard people in the Yes camp making reference to Bannock Burn... something which would make any Scot's blood swell... But no-one has mentioned the proud traditions since...

The Scottish Highlanders at Waterloo... The Black Watch leading the crossing of the Rhine in 1944... The Scots who fought across Europe to free the people of the tyranny of the Nazi jack boot...

That recent history is being ignored...

Or how about the many Scots who faught, as well as those who died, in World War 1?... Should their legacy be ignored?

It seems one camp thinks "Yes"... And that's got to be thought about seriously as derailed...

Other topics I've seen are the Nuclear Sub's... An Independent Scotland campaign has declared they don't want the base, nor the Subs... I'm pretty sure that Scottish tax payers like that deal, billions spent and they "don't want them"... With a wild acting Russia still flying just off sure of Scotland too...

But hey ho, they don't want the subs... They're playing on Nuclear "fears" to get votes... Not thinking about the communities supported by the sub base, the thousands of jobs in Scotland which depend on those subs being there... Oh no, they just want to be seen as "PC" and get rid of Nuclear!...

What about services which are nationally funded?... I've mentioned the need for RAF cover, Russia does try to overfly Scotland regularly.

How about the Royal Navy's other bases?... How about the Army itself... Does an Independent Scotland want to be a neutral state, like Ireland or Switzerland?... If so, how will it sit with Denmark, Holland, Belgium, France and the remains of the UK in having an unalighed state suddenly appear in the vulnerable Nato North West... The flank through which Cold War Submarine operations so dominated planning and which may come to dominate again, but now without Scottish bases or SOSUS listening stations?

None of this is being thought about, the thinking I've seen from the Yes campaign has been almost a kin to a drunken argument in a bar!  "Bannock Burn, aye Jim laddy the bassads, Independence!"

The "No" campaign, well they've been attacked in the street by numpties with eggs, great way to stop someone speaking to you I must admit...

I have friends who are Scottish, I have friends who are English married to Scots... So far I've not met anyone who has fully furned the "yes" campaign with a vote, nor have I heard how beyond the immediate short term Scotland could support itself!

Simply put, Scotland is part of this Union of the Great Kingdoms on the British Isles, talking of her anything other makes me very sad.

----

Addendum : 10/Sept/2014

I reckon I'm onto something, i reckoned Scotland would be wrecked by economic disaster (if independent) by 2034... Turns out 2035 the Oil runs out... Lovely... Can't wait to see the results of that one...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-29149106