You are currently browsing the daily archive for July 25th, 2007.
The Financial Times:
Two new aircraft carriers, each of them the size of the QE2, will enter service within the next 10 years, ministers confirmed on Wednesday, portraying the navy as winners in a tight defence spending settlement.
The 65,000 tonne ships, to be built at four shipyards around the country, will form the vanguard of Britain’s defence capability and should allow the UK to take on worldwide missions well into the future…
I first mentioned this in another context, the other day. Now it’s confirmed.
And it’s excellent news. But while we all like “big ships”, it may not be the best spend. For clearly this means Britain should be well-prepared by then to cope with any threat posed by . . . the, err, jihadist navy?
The BBC reports:
…Long queues formed in supermarket car parks on Wednesday as people waited to collect their daily ration of six two-litre bottles of water.
At the Tesco in Quedgeley residents said the crisis had fostered a war-time spirit.
Reginald Davies, 91, who fought during the Second World War, said: “I did five days without water in Burma.
“I’ve seen men go mad from thirst. This is nothing. The worst thing is getting out of bed in the morning at 91 to get water.”…
Clearly, the “war-time spirit” is not spreading to everyone. Sky reports:
People are draining water bowsers in flood-stricken parts of the country and selling the proceeds while the elderly and vulnerable struggle to cope.
Police say there have also been reports of disorder at the emergency water distributors while Sky News Online readers say they have woken to find the bowsers empty.
“We have had reports of people behaving selfishly in terms of emptying the bowsers,” police said
“We have had confirmed reports of people seeking to re-sell the water and that’s being treated as theft.”…
That last bit is almost too much. In regular circumstances police can’t keep city streets predictably safe even in certain, well-known, high-crime locations; but amidst a major regional emergency that is stretching all resources to the limits, they are going to track down “water thieves”? With all respect, give us all a break.
Afghanistan’s Taliban killed one of the 23 Korean hostages on Wednesday after Kabul failed to free Taliban prisoners, a spokesman for the group said, adding insurgents would kill more if their demands were not met…
Oh, yes, one more time: do lecture us all about “Guantanamo”, “international law” and “war crimes”.
_____________________________
UPDATE: Consul-at-Arms:
“…Former Gitmo Prisoner In Suicide Bombing“
Actually, as we will soon be duely informed — if we haven’t been already – that, of course, it was his having been held at Guantanamo that drove him to it.
Let’s have some fun. (We could sure use it.) Leave it to our friends at the BBC. You just knew they couldn’t resist reporting this (via my wife):
The number of patio heaters in gardens in Britain is expected to almost double over the next year, despite environmental fears, a report suggests.
Oh, and you’ll never guess what we just got as a gift, from the in-laws? (We had made ourselves as available as possible in June and July, to help with the mother-in-law’s surgery recuperation.) After putting the heater together, I couldn’t quite place what it resembled, until I realized it kinda looks like an armless version of the tall robot from Buck Rogers — the Hawk year.
The other night, the dog even started barking at it . . . seeing it standing there ominously, the top covered, just outside the back door. Now, though, I realize why. Dogs are so intuitive about the otherworldly of course, he probably just sensed that “evil” surrounds it.
Recent Comments