RE: I Give Up !!!

It’s all a conspiracy by airlines to raise revenue through fines!

I don’t think there is any great safety risk (I doubt there have been many, if any, crashes resulting from a passenger smoking). The main case against smoking is the distress it can cause to non-smoking passengers in the confined cabin environment. It probably made the interiors of aeroplanes smell, too.

Do you know what the legal status is?

On most airlines, the toilet warning notice tells you that smoking is banned under federal edict and punishable by a fine of USD 1,000 or similar.

Why do non-US airlines stick US legal notes on their aircraft? There is no notice that it is illegal by any other law. And breaking US law is pefwectly legal outside the US, as long as you are not also breaking local laws.

RE: ashamed of myself

Relax keltic.

It’s fine. There are some English contributors who have terrible syntax and grammar; you’re probably in the top half.

RE: Australia’s refugee problem

I used to live in Hull, which for those of you not from the UK, is a small city on the East coast. The population was a steady 300,000 when I lived there.

It is now nearer to 500,000.

Why?

Birth rates and death rates amongst “locals” haven’t changed much. There are not really any new jobs to envourage migration from other places in the UK.

But there are a huge number of foreigners around, mostly from Kosovo.

In other words, a city of 300,000 has grown to 500,000 almost entirely on economic migrants. The city was poor before this; heaven only knows what the city GDP per head must be now.

This seems to sum up imigration policy in the UK; send them all to poor cities, who can’t object.

RE: How many airlines do this?

Virgin are good at that sort of thing.

I was flying EWR-LHR with them about 2 years ago. I had boarded the aircraft and was in my seat, when another passenger asked if I was in the wrong seat. The staff had checked two people in to the same seat. Even though there was an empty seat next to me, they actually upgraded me to Upper Class rather than shift this chap one seat along!

I was dressed well though, whereas the other chap looked like he was homeless!

I suppose it doesn’t alter their costs to do this; it actually engenders a propensity to re-book with them, so I’d say such behaviour is good business sense. Shame other airlines don’t agree!

RE: Concorde in trouble again!

Well, Concorde makes a regular profit for BA. That’s what they always claim, annyway. The price of a ticket, its no wonder.

Besides, it has value as a loss leader. Going off on a tangent, Mercedes don’t maka a fortune on the top of the range cars. Same for BMW. Their mere presence adds cachet and prestige to the rest of the lineup.

RE: Your favourite music styles, b

Punk, new metal genres – Sum 41, A, Hi Fi Serious, Feeder – that kind of thing.

Rammstein are the best however.

I also love classical music, expecially “commercial” stuff like O Fortuna.

RE: Alqauda. 11th September

What I think keltic means is that three Syrian Al’Qaeda personnel were arrested in Spain. They had with them some tapes containing techincal data on the WTC and other high profile targets.

RE: Australia’s refugee problem

I agreeed with most of that Wombat, especially the point about people transiting through other countries first.

In the UK, there is a similar problem. Refugees enter the EU, then eventually get caught and lots of them are detained by the French at the Sangatte camp. This is next to the channel tunnel lines, and lots of them attempt to smugle themselves into the UK.

They risk their lives to get from France to England, which to me seems a little strange. It boils down to more generous wellfare in the UK I suppose.

The perception here, is that the French are doing this on purpose, to pass them off on to the UK. Not very helpful of them!