On the available evidence, I would tend to agree that Nige himself, personally, is not racist. However, a significant percentage (but by no means all certainly fewer than half) of the rest of his supporters as seen in the press comments sections on websites (of all persuasions), on balance would qualify as racist.
Edit: since I don’t know any UKIP supporters personally, unless of course they are soft kippers and aren’t owning up, I have no direct evidence to draw on to reinforce or refute this position

Although I’m probably not going to vote, UKIP best represents my views.

I haven’t got any issue with people from foreign countries coming here to make a life for themselves. They contribute a great deal to our society. What I have an issue with is this mass, uncontrolled free for all that is currently happening. Overpopulation is putting such a strain on our infrastructure and resources, and the numbers of migrants coming are making the situation worse. And god knows what the knock on effect will be in a couple of generations time.

Is that racist? I would say that many UKIP supporters share my view, and are frustrated that the 2 main parties are simply ignoring this problem. I would not for a second deny that UKIP has its share of nutters, but the same can be said of all political parties.

You consider Rafale development as deadpan. This far from reality. Roadmap is very clear and evokes Rafale being in production well past 2025 – and expected to be in service in 2050.
Past the F3R update, you are forgetting all further developments already on study at the present day – nEUROn, MLUs, and so on.

You are right about one thing. Typhoon life will be probably much shorter than Rafale’s. You can thank Eurofighter GmbH for Typhoon’s initial hasty development, lacking some fundamental elements present on the Rafale, such as highly modular avionics, allowing room for vast and relatively easy improvements, RCS discretion thought from the start, among other. Typhoon was developped as a dragster on which they thought they could add ESP and ABS later.

Unfortunately, without a significant redesign, Rafale will always be limited to its relatively small radar array.

And yes, I agree that Rafale will likely be in service for much longer than Typhoon. But the reason is the French economy is now in a seriously bad way with no signs of improvement. This “road map” you speak of will soon disappear as the politicians start making their cutbacks. There will be no funds for a replacement for Rafale, and I suspect it will be the last manned frontline jet that the French services operate.

For all its faults, at least F35 has a broad funding base. Something Rafale does not boast.

Claiming that the operations in Libya were some great success for Rafale (and Typhoon, Tornado, or any other type involved for that matter) means nothing. A Vietnam era Skyraider would have probably been just as successful, while costing a minute fraction of the aformentioned types.

Pipped to the post, Geoff. I was going to make a similar point. In terms of technogical development Hawker and Bristol and later RR drove the project and against considerable odds. An exceptional British programme produced an exceptional British aircraft. But it was the last.

What about Hawk? that has been a huge success.

Thanks, will pick up a copy tomorrow.

Was a fine aircraft that had an admirable service record during WW2, despite being obsolete by then.

I guess F15E and SU34 aren’t strike aircraft then.

Can I just say I was a vocal advocate of Scots ‘independence’, and was really miffed when it didn’t happen.

Now see how right I was?

Moggy

As was I.

I found this map on the vote share during the referendum interesting
[ATTACH=CONFIG]237095[/ATTACH]
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-29255449

It seems to me that the majority of Scotland had pretty strong feelings about not becoming independent. Perhaps Glasgow and Dundee could form their own nation, it could be called the Socialist Haggis Ingesting Trotskyist Home Of Loathing England. It would of course need abbreviating 😀

It’s a shame N3200 wasn’t given to another charity – specifically the BBMF.