Sounds (according to this assessment) like a rerun of when Trump and Putin held a bilateral summit in Helsinki last year? - " After the meeting, Trump stunned the US national-security apparatus and foreign allies when he sided with Russia over the US intelligence community..." https://www....

Caribbean wrote:

T-Force wrote:Scotland has 80% of the global whisky market and UK claims it's worth £5 billion to the Uk economy

Yet the (Scottish) figures that you posted show that it's only £4.5b

Even ONS would say the rounding follows mathematical (if not Constitutional ) conventions...

Lookie-lookie. the last four entries here (the least disaggregated, by country/ region) https://www.ons.gov.uk/economy/governmentpublicsectorandtaxes/publicsectorfinance/articles/countryandregionalpublicsectorfinances/financialyearending2018#public-sector-net-fiscal-balance would not leave much room...

A reuters mention from 3 hrs back: "Trucks full of PLA soldiers rolled into Hong Kong within hours of the 1997 handover which ended British rule, raising questions about their role. They stage frequent drills but have seldom since been seen outside their bases. " - well, the point made the...

I thought that only spoilt children considered that sharing something was the same as losing something. Well put: France and Germany share... and do not seem to lose anything in the process - but we are - somehow - different? Well, the Mother of all Parliaments is being subjected to a gang rape... ...

Must say that I doubt strategic sense of having a RN base in Bahrein, as opposed to Oman? For short legged MCMs maybe not, but when replaced then I think Bahrain will be scaled back. Must say that I doubt strategic sense of having a RN base in Bahrein, as opposed to Oman? For short legged MCMs mayb...

annual cost of German reunification was around 3.5% of West German 1989 GDP whereas the cost that you're expecting the ROI to take on in the event of Irish unification is around 2.7% of ROI GDP. They have a lot of 45% tax payers (not too happy) still toiling to pay off the latest follies (Irish pro...

Caribbean wrote:try watching the Brexit: Behind Closed Doors fly-on-the-wall documentary (the BBC has taken it off, but it's on you-tube)

Wrong thread for this comment, but...
there's the Beep, actively rewriting (very) recent history

they'd look at the example of German reunification and decide that it'd be more than worth the economic cost and I expect that they'd be the recipient of a lot of EU regeneration funding and other support, particularly from Germany. sorry to say, but (for once!... only once?) you might be missing t...

I'm sure that never once during Corbyn's obsessing over a united Ireland did he ever consider he may be replacing British troops on the streets of Belfast with the United States Marine Corps. True, and even then there are limits to the strength of the Irish Lobby on the Capitol Hill: -they might we...

Spot the difference The dictatorship of the proletariat, the period of transition... will for the first time create democracy for the people, for the majority, along with the necessary suppression of the exploiters, of the minority. Vladimir Lenin Only just (in the last year year, once or twice, I ...

Can the UK trust its own PM? He has by now become the dominant figure in UK politics. But a share of power wasn't enough for him - he seems to want outright power. This led him to overreach, no? Shutting down the Parliament in the hope of winning a potential snap election. - But what if it turns out...

Evidence is mounting:

"Chancellor Sajid Javid cancelled a speech on the economy, and brought the one-year spending review forward to early September, sparking fresh speculation about an early election"

... how much more for Defence then ?

Hi xav! Sorry to picking up on detail, but Finland is also on the FMS... more importantly: do you know if that is for Block 1 or 2? As in " international cooperative partnership composed of 12 nations, 10 of which employ ESSM (and FMS to 3 countries: Japan, UAE and Thailand). Unlike Block 1, Bl...

T-Force wrote: N Ireland most likely as part of Eire

Is this good ol' Irish T talking?

Alba ? ... Roman (for the White Cliffs) and they gave up on what was behind the "wall" opNorth...somehow Wales got omitted ; not important ?

The main problems are nuclear disarmament lobby and Labour party (especially under Corbyn). The Coalition went through all kinds of 'motions'... to make sure that all were happy about "alternatives" having been fully looked into. - LibDems and Labour are not that far apart in the latest p...

abc123 wrote:Good thing about CVBG is that she can be retreated back into a safe(r) area until reinforcements arrive.

Err, to paraphrase: fire engine arrives on the scene in good time, but then pulls back, for the waterpump to be delivered, on a separate vehicle... in due course?

Old news, but as the chg of gvmnt has slowed everything down on proc front, don't be surprised if Boeing will come through strong in the next news pieces, as and when they break. With the Block III radar update "simultaneous ground and air mode" capability for operating under radar and Gro...

Lots of work continuing behind the scenes to secure the future of Harland & Wolff. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-49446078 They had one (repair/refit) order on the books and...MV Anvil point was completed at H&W in 2002, as one of the six Points (of the German design). - FSS...

This August 3, 2019 (StRN) "Critical Royal Navy submarine refit running late The oldest of the Royal Navy’s ballistic missile submarines, HMS Vanguard is currently in Devonport undergoing major refit and refuelling. There are strong indications the project is in trouble and she will be unable t...

Ideally the Carrier should have a minimum of four but escorts are limited in number I don't think the need to "have all four sides" covered needs super-douper missile escorts (though one should certainly fall into that category) as the threats are many and simply having an asset manoeuvre...

As others have said I don’t think BAE were ever going to win this and Leander was going through the motions. They have enough on their plate especially the elephant in the room which is Successor + of note is that the recent decision to remove the cost of material recovered from decommissioned type...

Smacks of a rescue job. Still, if the story will hold water, in the wider fleet mix it is the best choice (with capacity to grow & mutate).
- now... about the capacity to build the 2 (?) FSSs?

how does the 4xTide, 2xWave, 2xFSS and Fort Victoria balance work going forward as RN transitions from the CVS's to the CVF's within the CSG? Drop the Waves off the list (for other uses?) and should work fine with the 1.4 carriers we will have (available). -FLSSs, despite the impressive capacity ci...

ensure any BOST isn’t taken by force in the first place which is exactly what it’s done. Luckily none of them are in any danger what so ever in any strategic timeframe you care to think off. We always slip away when the situation arises: Iran (THE Iran of the Shah, that is) took the islands in Horm...