The suspension and cancellation of a number of key armoured vehicle projects since the 1998 defence review has resulted in the Armed Forces facing a significant shortage in the principal armoured vehicles they require, until at least 2024-2025.
Today's National Audit Office report found that the Department's standard acquisition process has been undermined by a combination of over-ambitious requirements and unstable financial planning. Despite the commitment of considerable resources, since 1998, the MOD has received only a fraction of the armoured vehicles it has set out to buy through its standard acquisition process.
Burglar with a cleanliness obsession is spared jail because he'd find it too dirty.
The 20-year-old was allowed to walk free from court after he told a judge he would find jail ‘too traumatic’ because of his obsessive compulsive disorder.
Cassidy smashed his way into an elderly couple’s home while they were sleeping and stole a handbag containing £105.
The thief, who has 14 previous convictions for 29 crimes, committed the burglary while on a suspended sentence for robbery and handling stolen goods.
However, he avoided jail by convincing Cambridge Crown Court he would not be able to cope with life behind bars because he is obsessed with cleanliness.
Instead Judge Gareth Hawkesworth handed Cassidy, of Cambridge, a 12-month sentence in a young offenders’ institution, suspended for two years.
US government lawyers are investigating reports that the former owner of a controversial private security firm has been hired to form a mercenary army for the rulers of the United Arab Emirates.
Erik Prince, the former owner of Blackwater Worldwide, which was accused of multiple killings of civilians in Iraq, has signed a deal to train Colombian and other recruits in a private "foreign legion" to take part in special operations at home and even abroad.
Among its potential tasks are to defend the UAE from uprisings and terror attacks and if necessary to take part in any conflict with Iran, according to the New York Times.
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According to the report, the 580-strong battalion has been established in Zayed Military City, just off the main road linking Abu Dhabi to Dubai, alongside Emirati troops, and provided by Mr Prince with trainers, mostly veterans of the American, British and German armies and special forces.
Chris Huhne, the Energy Secretary, is to be investigated by police over allegations that he allowed his wife Vicky Pryce to take speeding points on his behalf.
Essex police have assigned an officer to investigate the claims that would almost certainly result in the end of Mr Huhne's ministerial career and a jail sentence if proven.
The suggestion that the former Liberal Democrat leadership contender persuaded someone else to accept his speeding points, so he could avoid a driving ban, was first raised publicly by his estranged wife Vicky Pryce last week.
The Daily Telegraph has learnt that the person alleged to have taken the points is Miss Pryce herself.
Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the International Monetary Fund chief who allegedly sexually attacked a Manhattan hotel maid, has delayed appearing in court after agreeing to a medical examination.
Mr Strauss-Kahn, the IMF's 62-year-old managing director, was due to face a judge at New York City criminal court accused of a criminal sexual act, attempted rape and unlawful imprisonment.
But late last night, after police, court officials and reporters had waited more than eight hours for him to appear, Mr Strauss-Kahn's legal team announced that he would be undergoing further tests before being formally charged.
Mr Strauss-Kahn was arrested and provisionally charged by police in the early hours of Sunday morning, after being seized on an Air France jet waiting to take off on the tarmac of New York's John F. Kennedy Airport.
The prominent French socialist, who was expected to challenge Nicolas Sarkozy's presidency next year, allegedly assaulted a 32-year-old maid who had arrived to clean his £1,855-a-night suite at the luxury Sofitel near Times Square, at 1pm on Saturday.
Thanks to James Goldsmith, we were spared the financial death throes that Eurozone members such as Ireland are now experiencing. We can only hope that the Euro is shredded by the markets, causing deadly fissures to appear in the EU façade and 'community'.
If Ireland takes IMF cash, it will largely be under the thumb of Britain - the country whose embrace Ireland could not wait to excape as it rushed to the bosom of the EU.
If Ireland takes Merkel's (expropriation) of EU cash, then it can expect to lose its sovereignty to the EU and would be forced to raise its corporation tax, thereby reducing its competitiveness.
If Ireland does a deal with Britain, it will be even more firmly yoked to Britain than it ever was - this time, via the serfdom which accompanies unpayable debt.
What a a fine mess they've made. If only they'd listened to us and not signed that blasted treaty.
In 2008, before the ratification of the Lisbon Treaty, Eric Deakins, MP for Walthamstow West 1970-74, MP for Walthamstow 1974-87, and junior minister for Trade (1974-76) and the DHSS (1976-79) in Labour governments under Wilson and Callaghan respectively, witnessed and have spoken out against the dishonesty exhibited by a succession of leaders in committing Britain to the European Project.
Described are the aims of the Treaty of Rome, and how in subsequent years the process of integration into a European political entity has gradually been forced through, against the wishes and without the knowledge of the majority of British people.
Little by little, we are being roped in by the EU, aided and abetted by their new best friends, Cameron and Hague, who know a thing or two about twisting language to sound like the truth, so to disguise a cleverly crafted lie.
If we do not make a stand, Britain will be in the Euro one day - or in an incarnation of it, the end game being complete political union under an unelected body of totalitarian technocrats, who will transform Britain into an ex-nation of serfs. Except for the politicos, of course, who will be rewarded handsomely.
Ex-Labour MPs Nigel Spearing and Eric Deakins tell of how the British people were duped. They were both Members of UK Parliament at the time of Britain's entry into the 'Common Market' and witnessed how it was pulled off.(7-video autoplay).
British soldiers repeatedly came under attack from US forces in a series of 'friendly fire' incidents, according to Pentagon logs on the Iraq War leaked to the whistle-blowing website Wikileaks.
Being shot at had become relatively routine so that by February 2005, according to a report, a three vehicle British convoy strafed by an American gunner did not even bother to stop.
I thought this deserved a wider audience. Mandelson's department of Business, Innovation & Skills wrote off £30m of public money with another £70m due to be lost "in this and future years" because of contracts.
Here's the full article if, like me, you missed it.
If you’ve read my previous posts,( HERE and HERE), you’ll be aware I’m not to keen on these machines due to their high operation and maintenance costs. I was made aware that the life of a wind turbine was only 6 to 8 years rather than the frequently quoted 20 year lifespan.
However I came on these little gems which I link to at the bottom of this post if you really would like to read it all.
This is underlined by an analysis of maintenance records, which shows that while service teams for offshore wind farms are supposed to make two scheduled maintenance visits every year, unscheduled visits to many installations are made 20 times a year.
And,
The heart of the problem is that the technology being used offshore is generally onshore technology that has not been modified sufficiently to meet the different demands of an offshore environment.
The classic example of this is the disaster at the Horns Rev wind farm in 2005, following which Vestas is reported to have removed and repaired 80 of its V90 models, designed for offshore use, owing to the effect of salty water and air on the generators and gearboxes, which became corrupt after only two (My emphasis) years. A similar procedure has been reported this year, with Vestas' 30 turbines requiring a change of rotor bearings, at an estimated cost of €30m.
Have they produced any meaningful power in this time?
And don’t get me started on gearbox failure.
As an ex marine engineer I could have told them the previous. (Providing they’d paid me a large six figure salary of course).
Only ten days prior to the blowout, Halliburton conveniently snapped up a giant marine firefighting corporation for $250.00 million. Persistent suggestions that Goldman Sachs shorted Transocean immediately ahead of the blow-out refuse to be erased from the record, although we removed our initial reference to this pending further research. Most tellingly of all, as always occurs after these atrocities, the stories keep a-changing. There was no Deadman switch. Now, all of a sudden, it is reported that there WAS a Deadman blowout preventer. And to rub in BP’s humiliation, corporation executives are now reported to have been on board at a party to celebrate BP’s safety record, and the first explosion occurred in the room next to where the party was being held. This would have been known days ago, one would have thought.
Given former US criminal Vice President Richard B. Cheney’s integration with Halliburton, what are the odds that this was indeed a malicious sabotage operation against this prime British,(more here)
A couple of nights ago the ABC's Foreign Correspondent program covered the legal use of cannabis for medical purposes in California and how, given the huge financial hole the state is in, this could be expanded to provide a useful cash crop if the state grasped the nettle (or weed, as it were) and simply repealed the prohibition on adults smoking it. A few years ago I saw an episode of Penn & Teller: Bullshit! that also dealt with drug prohibition, which if I recall claimed that there were only a handful of people in the whole US who were allowed to smoke cannabis for medical reasons. Judging by Tuesday night's Foreign Correspondent things have moved on a bit since then. The program, appropriately titled 'High Finance', is worth a look and is on the ABC's iViewer here, though I have no idea if that thing will work for anyone outside Australia or if, like Auntie Beeb's iPlayer, will show you the electronic door. If it doesn't work or you don't want to watch a half hour TV program the next best thing is the transcript, which is available here.
For those of you that have followed this blog and it's predecessor ukwebspider I must apologise for the distinct drop off in posts in recent weeks. Things have happened recently that have challenged my world view.
When I first started ukws last year and even the uknewsnetwork, 3 months ago, we lived in the halcion days of a booming stock market, promises of 'green shoots' and relatively few immediate dangers.
All that has changed.
Anyone following the gulf oil disaster will know it is going to change the world forever.
Anyone following the flotilla crisis will know that more ships are coming and confrontation, even war, is on the horizon.
Anyone following the 'Iran problem' must know that a military strike is now highly likely and with it the onset of ww3.
And anyone following the continuing economic collapse must realise what will soon unfold.
The World is changing my friends and not for the better.
I'm no longer interested in provincial politics and irrelevent stories of 'over-bearing' councils and H&S departments gone crazy. These things are irrelevent when there are so many greater problems and disasters unfolding. The UK blogosphere has lost my interest- too much focus on irrelevent stories, little real analysis, few warnings of what is now happening in the world.
I'm abandoning the blog and starting another called 'the crisis report' where I will focus on those things that really matter; Economic Collapse, Peak Oil, the New World Order, Middle East War, The Gulf Oil Disaster etc with a special emphasis on how to survive what is now unfolding.
I will need a few days to set it up and for those of you that want to keep in touch I'll post the link here. I also want to set up a forum where those of you that realise what is happening and are trying to prepare can discuss events and strategy.
The new blog will be better than this one as I will be freed from the constraints of reporting everything that might affect the UK and instead I can post those things that really matter on a global scale.
The world's changing- things are getting much worse- and rapidly.
The new blog won't be pretty and it won't be for the faint hearted but if you want to know whats really going on in the world- stop by sometime.
The Liberal-Conservative coalition government have made good on their promise to release the full list of special advisers - including details of what they earn.
The number of special adviser posts has also been cut from 78 – the number under Gordon Brown – to 68, which includes seven vacancies. It is thought this could reduce the pay bill by as much as £2m. Last year's bill was £6.8m.
Phil Gormley, Chief Constable of Norfolk Police, told his 1,700 officers to tackle the county’s most serious problems – even if some crime figures grow as a result.
Norfolk has the lowest crime rate in England, according to Home Office figures released in April, despite bucking the national trend by recording increases in violent crime and robbery.
At least 16 people were killed when floodwater tore through a campsite in Arkansas, US officials have said.
The flood also washed away records of who was there, making the daunting search for dozens missing in heavily wooded forest even more difficult as anguished families waited for word of their loved ones.
Rescue crews planned to resume their search this morning in the Ouachita National Forest, where heavy rain caused the normally quiet Caddo and Little Missouri rivers to burst their banks. The search was expected to take several more days - and perhaps even weeks.
It will likely surprise you but like a trolley car we are now locked into economic tracks that determine our financial destination. Unfortunately, it isn’t a place anyone would choose knowingly other than possibly the Bilderberg elite.
Financially and economically we are lurching along, rocking from side to side with the occasional unexpected jarring flash crash jolt. But unlike a trolley line, for some reason no one seems to know what the destination is. Many are asking but few are willing to tell. more
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The myriad of facts, conjecture, perspectives, viewpoints, opinions, analyses, and information in the articles, stories and commentaries posted on this site range from cutting edge hard news and comment to extreme and unusual perspectives. We choose not to sweep uncomfortable material under the rug - where it can grow and fester. We choose not to censor skewed logic and uncomfortable rhetoric. These things reflect the world as it now is - for better and worse. We present multiple facts, perspectives, viewpoints, opinions, analyses, and information.
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Merry Christmas
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My apologies for not posting for the past few months but I’ve had eye
problems and being on the computer or iPad for any length of time is nigh
impossi...
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Although we are powerless to stop the destruction of our society, we can at
least chronicle for the information of future generations how it happened,
a bi...
Amusing Bunni: Urgent Update
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*I can't believe I almost missed this.......*
*AMUSING BUNNI - CAROL MACKIE*
*Re-posted from Opie's blog.......*
*(5/5/13) I will be on an airplane to...
A plea
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A plea to both of my readers (hi, Mum). I have been quiet for a while,
which is partly due to connection problems but mostly because early in the
New Year ...
To the Fatuous Twat in the seat of POWER!
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*HEY FATUOUS ONE! look below your game has been unveiled and you can no
longer hide behind your pretense that nothing is wrong in the world you are
intent...
