RE: Bush in Europe —

As I’ve said before, Bush is a “Smith & Wesson Socialist”.

Lets go out and kill the “bad guys” which is basically anyone moronic enough to be born outside the US. At the same time, lets not allow competition and free trade. Let’s despise communism, yet base our economic planning around socialist protectionism philosophies. Anyone who tries to compete with the US must, by definition, be evil.

The emphasis the US leaders are placing on the fact that someone might actually (shock! horror! Let’s end this free speech nonsense right away!) criticise them is amusing. The US spends its time criticising everyone else!!! It’s also funny how they accuse Europeans of being anti-semitic (which is not true) yet they themselves are very much anti-arab. Most Americans fail to see the inherent flaw in that position.

The irony is that the US seems to be ignoring its only real “ally” in Europe – the UK. Blair is one of the most influential figures in Europe (and possibly even a future Commission president) but gets snubbed.

RE: Manchester Commonwealth games…Airport Traffi

For both the World Cup and Olympics, a lot of national airlines gave over an aircraft for the national team. I wonder if the Commonwealth games will be the same?

Unfortunate time to host it though. For the rest of the year, events in Japan and South Korea will overshadow all other sporting events.

RE: Virgin Red-New US low cost airline

What’s wrong with Gatwick? I can’t understand the aversion to it, because it is actually much more pleasant than LHR. It takes about 10 minutes longer to get to from central London on the Gatwick express than Heathrow does.

Also, given that one of the 3 bodies who will have to approve a merger is the UK Office of Fair Trading, the UK economic interest will be a major issue in any proposed deal. I cannot see the EU competition authority favouring FRA or AMS over LGW either, so they will be a neutral in that respect.

Will it actually lead to market domination? I don’t agree that it will.

You ALREADY have what is essentially a cartel on business travel. That has arisen, partially, because BA and AA between them have a large number of the slots. A merged BA/AA would have, together, less slots than they had before. The new airline would therefore have less price-setting power than the existing BA/AA situation. You try booking a biz class return from LHR to JFK and you’ll probably find a difference of less than 5% in price between all of the airlines!

I also don’t favour the Microsoft comparison. MS operates in a market place with almost no regulation. The airlines are almost obsessively regulated. Bermuda II, for all its flaws, sees to that. The demand elasticity of LHR-USA business travel only goes so far; passengers will go to the European carriers if prices start to get even crazier than they are now.

RE: New low cost in UK

No:

Nicole-air !!

For those of you who remember the Renault adverts.

RE: Sept 11th and CIA warnings of al-qaeda hijacki

I still find the hatred of security measures really confusing.

Do people have a constitutional right to board someone else’s aeroplane without walking through a metal arch, having their bags x-rayed or being pat-searched?

In most of the world, if someone checks bags in, but doesn’t make the flight, the airline has 2 choices. Either wait for the passenger or go without him – but offload his bags first. I don’t know whether this is a US requirement or not, but even if it is, a lot of carriers seem to be non-compliant judging by press articles issued at the time.

I recall that Al Gore led an enquiry into domestic airline security a few years ago, and he recommended that security be beefed up. But the airlines refused. If that is the case, then you have to say that they are culpably negligent in this. Have any law suits started yet?

RE: Cheeta pictures

“Sor dee” or “Sow dee” was supposed to be Saudi, as in Saudi Arabia.

RE: More

My turn! My turn!

Dumb US court decisions:

1. January 2000. Kathleen Robertson of Austin was awarded $780,000 by a jury of her peers after breaking her ankle tripping over a toddler who was running inside a department store. The owners of the store were understandable surprised at the verdict, considering the little sod as actually Mrs. Robertson’s son!

2. June 1998. Carl Truman of LA won $74,000 and medical expenses when his neighbour ran over his hand with a Honda Accord. Mr. Truman apparently didn’t notice there was someone at the wheel of the car, when he was trying to steal his neighbour’s hubcaps.

3. October 1998. Terrence Dickinson on Pennsylvania was leaving a house he had just finished robbing by way of the garage. He was not able to get the garage door to go up since the automatic door opener was malfunctioning. He couldn’t re-enter the house because the door connecting the house and garafe locked when he pulled it shut. The family was on vacation. Mr. Dickinson found himself locked in the garage for 8 days. He subsisted on a case of Pepsi he found, and a large bag of dry dog food. He sued the homeowner’s insurance claiming the situation caused him undue mental anguish. The jury agreed and he won half a million dollars.

4. A Philadelphia restaurant was ordered to pay Amber Carson $113,500 after she slipped on a soft drink and broke her coccyx. The beverage was on the floor because Ms. Carson threw it at her boyfriend 30 seconds earlier during an argument.

5. Merv Grazinski of Oklahoma City bought s brand new 32 foor Winnebago motor home. On his first trip, having joined the freeway, he set the cruise control to 70mph and calmly left the drivers seat to go into the back and make himself a cup of coffee. Not surprisingly, the Winnebago left the road, crashed and overturned. Mr. Grazinski sued Winnebago for not advising him in the handbook that he couldn’t actually do this. He was awared $1.75m plus a new Winnebago.

RE: Virgin Red-New US low cost airline

Why would it never happen?

BA and AMR Corp are both looking a little vulnerable and could do with all the synergies going.