The trouble with the EU seems simple to me.
How are you going to couple together economies like Germany. France, and Britain (which even in themselves have glaring mismatches) with economies like Portugal, Spain and Greece?

I would have thought it’d be easier trying to mix oil and water.

One might say the same about London and the south-east and deprived areas of the north-east, rural Wales etc.

The only reason we seem to think of this as a different situation is that we’re used to it.

Haven’t Chile taken delivery of quite a few F-16MLUs from the Netherlands since 2010? I can’t see them splashing out for any new Typhoons.

Or send them to Mars, it is longer! 😉

I suppose Australia started out as a penal colony too, and look how far it’s come!:D

Not to derail your question, but if I were in charge of the JSDF, I wouldn’t go for carriers, or even helicopter carriers. These are best used for power projection, and I don’t think Japan has a requirement for that. Much better to spend the money beefing up land based anti-shipping aircaft or missile systems, more diesel/electric submarines and similar measures.

Getting carriers just because China has them isn’t the answer.

Depends if there is a requirement for it, and I’m not sure there is. The RAF has recently purchased two additional Bae 146s which fill a similar niche as the C-27, but frankly they RAF has much more pressing requirements, with dwindling numbers of combat aircraft and no MPA to name but a few.

The UK couldn’t through NATO?

Well, thats all ok then !

Three EU optimists are all agreed:

The EU is not at all in crisis
The Euro is not on the brink of collapse
The Greeks are not rioting in the streets because they ain’t got any money
The Spanish ain’t rioting in the streets because they ain’t got no money
The Portuguese ain’t rioting and they ain’t got no money
The Irish ain’t rioting and they ain’t got no money
The EU ain’t printing money by the shed load to prevent a Euro collapse

BUT LOOK ON THE BRIGHT SIDE

The Euro is the world’s prime currency, much sought after by the world’s major economies when they’re casting about for investment opportunites offering maximum security such as government bonds.

The EU intend to maximise their social agenda in terms of:

More equal opportunities especially for women so that they will be ahead of the game thus making them more so.
The Working Time Directive will be cut by fifty percent. This means that most will see their time at work cut by half meaning that a recruitment drive for another fifty percent of workers will fill the gap – at the same pay rates.

An EU homosexual taskforce will be set up, the purpose of which is to ensure that ‘gays’ are adequately represented by means of enforced quotas in the workplace.

Ethnic workers are to receive similar positive discrimination irrespective of qualifications.

And finally, though not exhaustively, certain Staffordshire hospitals are to be each awarded five gold stars as centers of EU excellence in EU patient care thus justifying the three million in pay and bonuses earned per annum by the administrators.

So, a list of strawman arguments, misrepresentations, conspiracy theories with rather sinister undertones, topped of with things you have simply made up out of thin air.

We can disagree and debate, but this is just silly.

Assuming they do :cool:;)