RE: The

Wellm I think there should be a UN standard for seaworthiness, not just an EU standard. Anyway, this has turned into a political fistfight:

1. The CEO of the Dutch salvage company was interviewed on the BBC last night. He claimed that they wanted to tow it into shallow calm water, but the Spanish authorities forced them to tow it into deep choppy water which “definitely” damaged the hull. The Spanish authorities forced the convoy towards Portugal, until a Portuguese Naval gunboat told them to turn East, into worse water.

2. The EU transport commissioner (Loyola de Palacio?) claimed the boat had docked in Gibraltar and should have been impounded there. The UK government denies that it was in Gibraltar any time in the last 5 years.

3. The insurers (poor guys!) are British and I think the boat was registered in Nassau.

RE: Some thoughts

Unfortunately the world of today is dominated by a country which projects itself on the world without debating anything or using an open mind.

Okay, so the British were exactly the same a hundred years ago. I’m not criticising the US, just making the point that their culture is perceived as the “right” culture and non-conformance as regarded as akin to poor human rights. The only accepted exception seems to be Japan.

RE: Euromanx competes with BA

Nice idea, but it would be cheaper and quicker to use BA or BMI from MAN.

Besides, the BA.com reservation system is really bad. It finds it difficult to cope with combinations and usually gives silly prices when it finds one. Eg, I bought a ticket to MXP a few weeks ago. I tried:

IOM-MXP

Result: “no flights” or “destination not served”

If I tried:

IOM-MAN, then MAN-MXP

Yippee! It IS possible and the connection at MAN was about 2.5 hours. It would also be possible to fly IOM-LGW and connect through LHR or maybe even LGW.

My old man had to travel stateside recently and he visited Expedia for JNB-SLC tickets. Boy, expedia didn’t like that! It wouldn’t sell him anything. But, oh, JNB-JFK and JFK-SLC was really easy with good connection times. I tried IOM-HNL once just for a laugh and I swear there was an explosion at the Expedia HQ!

What I am trying to say is that the technology of today is really awful and precludes this kind of flying. I don’t know why!

RE: Some thoughts

Yes keltic, that’s my point. There’s no objective yartdstick against which progress on human rights can be measured. The west likes to compare everyone to itself without looking inward. To a certain extent, this is currently justifiable (although not really accurate. because there are glaring breaches of human rights in the West).

But this is only because human rights in the West have improved dramatically since WW2.

RE: Some thoughts

It is surely impossible to prove who invented “human rights” Geforce.

Isn’t that a bit like claiming that the West invented the wheel, or discovered fire?

The subcontinent (well, India is the only bit I’m sure about!) in particular, is famous for the caste system. People of low birth are prevented from rising through employment, political activity or marriage. Okay, most people here despise such a system – I certainly do.

But at the time when the Brits were trying to “civilise” India, was Britain much different? I think we were a bit more palatable, in that one could rise from working class to lower middle class through effort, ability and luck. A few generations on, it was possible to achive upper middle class. But “caste” and “class” equate to pretty much the same don’t they?

So, why is there so much derision of Indian culture because of the caste system?

RE: Euromanx competes with BA

Wishful thinking Carl!

Keenair is a strange airline with no bookable website and travel agents seem mystified by it. They don’t account for very many passengers.

Euromanx use little 18 or 19 seaters. Although I don’t konw what they charge for IOM-LPL, I did try to book an IOM-EDI flight a few weeks ago and they quoted £272. As things stand, they aren’t going to make a big dent in BA’s armour. The business they picked up on IOM-DUB was because BA cut that scheudle (despite it being profitable) because they were short by one J41 elsewhere on their network. The jury’s out on them.

BA, I have to say, aren’t bad. They will have greater frequency than Euromanx and will probably be cheaper. They also currently use significantly larger aircraft (BAe. ATP vs. Beechcraft 1900D).

The real change will come if/when Emerald Airways return to the LPL route.

RE: For Americans

The one different I would point out between the US and Europe is that in the US, cabinet ministers are people hand picked, usually by the President.

In most of Europe (certainly in the UK) they are elected politicians. The prime minister does pick the ministers, but only from within the ranks of his own party members who have been elected to represent a community or constituency.

Ergo, US ministers are usually either experts in their field or friends of the President or at least someone in a high place. European ministers are career politicians. They frequently change roles. For instance in the UK, David Blunkett (the blind one) changed from being Education Secretary to being Home (interior) Secretary.