Heck, this kind of thing makes me feel old; I can remember when the DH125 was being proclaimed as one of the first of the exciting new breed of biz-jets, how rewarding all that hard paintwork finally was on the Airfix Dominie kit, and how good it was to see them as part of the “home team” at Finningley every year. The Dominie seems to have had a pretty accident-free career too, at least according to Wiki (at work, so no time for further Googling)-

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Aerospace_BAe_125

I think as long as so many guns are in public ownership, it is inevitable that some will fall into the hands of the unbalanced, the disaffected, etc, and that these tragedies will continue. I guess the unpalatable truth is that America sees it as a price worth paying for that obsolete “Right To Bear Arms”

It’s an odity, but after a snow melt, there always seems to be more dog shipt all over the place…not just your towpath.
It’s a mystery, like the disapearance of White Dog poo.

Apparently, white dog poo disappeared because they don’t gnaw on bones so much now.

Oh dear politics has been dragged in, you might need to revise your history though because the cancelling of CVA-01 carriers (might aswel add TSR-2 and P.1154 to that) and the coventional carrier run-down process was actually initiated by Denis Healey and Labour with their White Paper during 1966.
Hermes (1970 as conventional carrier) and Eagle finished by late 1972, leaving the Ark to struggle on in a deteriorating state until 1978.
Where does the Thatcher governement fit in, or does she just get the blame for everything?
I was under the impression that she was incredibly pro-Navy?

I was merely pointing out (with no political bias intended) that “pro-Navy” Thatcher apparently didn’t remember that she was once part of a Govt that oversaw the scrapping of the Ark. Labour may have begun the carrier run-down, but the Conservatives did nothing to reverse it.

Think I read somewhere that Howard Hughes wanted to order a large quantity for TWA but Bristol could not meet his delivery requirements. Seem to recall also that Hughes kept a Bristol sales team waiting for days at one of the New York airports, then suddenly called them in the middle of the night wanting to take the aircraft on a test flight, at the end of which he said he wanted to buy the Brittannia. Re the OP, the Merchantman was of course a variant of the Vanguard, Not the Brittannia.

Rather unfairly, I think most people assume Mike Batt created the Wombles.

I think the beauty of the “Harrier” quote is that it perfectly captured the tense, uncertain feeling we all had early in the Falklands campaign, for so many of us the first time we saw our country really go to war. As a memorable soundbite, I’d have to put it in my top 3 alongside “One small step for a man…” and “Some people are on the pitch…” Sad loss.