Arthur Pewty is right – this whole thing is the fault of the media, picking up a comment from a minister who for once is speaking without a PR brief.

In blaming PR people (I am one) you are attacking the wrong target – the problem is actually the journalists who are happy to print PR guff without challenging it and a belief that sensationlist stories is what is need to get viewers/readers.

The other problem is a dumbed down populace, more interested in Simon Cowell and Jordan than things which really matter, and that is reluctant to take responsibility for its own actions.

I would love to see the sort of media that Lindermyer advocates – I just doubt that there is a market for it.

Against such a background, you can’t blame politicians for using the soundbites that get them coverage. After all, they all give plenty of speeches – but they never get coverage for them!

Does it really matter how much the lottery gives to asylum seekers? No one is forced to play it – if you don’t like who the money goes to, find some other (almost certainly more profitable) use for your money.

The Lottery do list all of the organisations that it gives money to on its website – glancing through the list for my area I can’t find any asylum seeker type groups getting any funding. The first two pages do include over £30,000 to the local British Legion, £4,500 to the air cadets and approx £14,500 on several ‘heroes return’ awards though.

Regarding the awards mentioned in the article linked to from an earlier post, ignoring the implied homophobia, ‘something called Helpage International’ receive more funding from Age UK (23%) than the lottery (6%) -so perhaps some of the unamed author’s venom should be targetted towards that organisation – and presumably the Leeds Wounded Warriors Welfare Committee’s application for lottery funding wasn’t helped by it losing its charitable status in 1999.

And as what claims to be a civilised country, I would hope that we would be willing to offer help and support to asylum seekers that need it. If we are not, I think that is a very sad reflection of what this country has become.

Hi,

All the major hotel chains are now all over London, so try some of their websites – if your budget is tight, even some of the cheap ones like Premier Inn and Travellodge can be found in the centre these days.

If you are going to be in London for a while, you might want to try some of the ‘Apart-Hotels’ that are starting to appear. As the name would suggest, these are 1/2way between a hotel and an apartment. Not only do you tend to get more room than in a hotel, but you also get your own cooking facilities, which can be invaluable as you may not want to eat out every night.

Citadines have several in London – I have never used them in this country, but have abroad,and much prefer them to a hotel.

Irrespective of the merits of the spelling and grammar in the original petition, the reason that it will be ignored is is because so far only 1,228 people haver signed it!

If this is such a burning issue of concern to those serving, how come so few (and their families) have bothered to sign the petition?

Even if I agreed with it, I wouldn’t be willing to sign it until a few more of the people who would actually be impacted by the changes could be bothered to.

Yes – there have been several airlines that have used the Pan Am name since the original closed.

There was also a second Laker, who operated DC-10s for a couple of years out of Florida in the mid 1990s.

And Flybe called themselves British European for a short period after ditching the Jersey European name.

Is using an old name a good idea? I suppose the track record of these reincarnations tells its own story.

The Laker one was particularly interesting, as it wasn’t just a re-use of the name but an attempt by Freddie Laker to recreate the original, albeit it was based in the US. He soon found that once the initial publicity machine died down, passengers were not interested in the airline’s name, but the routes, the price and the service.

And I reckon that the same will happen to Peoplexpress – get the routes, aircraft, service and, critically, price, right, and they will be ok. If they don’t, using an old name won’t save them once the initial publicity has faded.

I think Lincoln .7 sums up the problem, while the media view Z list celebrities as being more important than injured servicemen (and by implication, their readers), they are never going to get any coverage.

Firstly, I can assure the OP that I certainly appreciate the sacrifice’s that people like his son are making, and while I don’t have any direct links with any service personnel, I have had plenty of sobering moments at Birmingham Airport when a RAF C-17 has showed up.

However, those posters keen to accuse the Government of seeking to hide casualty figures are wrong. Casualty figures are issued every two weeks, with the next set scheduled to be published on January 31st.

The following link will take you to the figures:-

http://www.dasa.mod.uk/applications/newWeb/www/index.php?page=48&thiscontent=1360&date=2012-01-17&pubType=0&PublishTime=09:30:00&from=home&tabOption=1

If (!) you get a nice day, you can do worse than a visit to Lepe Beach.

It isn’t a beach in the usual sense, in that you can park your car on it, and enjoy the views of the Isle of Wight and ships going to / from Southampton, and it is only a short walk to some ruins of where the mulberry harbours were built for D-Day if you want a military fix.

A little further round the coast is also Calshot – not so much to see their, but there is the obvious aviationlink with the flying boats.