That’s true and it’s a disgrace. It is managed by a private company – what Local Authorities call an ‘arm’s length’ body – that enables the owners (regardless of political colour) to shrug off responsibility.

I hope that the first thing the public enquiry does is make available the currently un-released existing report and recommendations on tower block fire safety, and call those responsible for sitting on it to account. Again, not a party political point.

As I said early, lots of people sat on it for a very long time (25 years) and part B of the Building Regs was last reviewed in 2006.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2017/jun/14/disaster-waiting-to-happen-fire-expert-slams-uk-tower-blocks

Using a management agency is very common in renting even at private level because there are a lot of laws and complexities that the average Joe does not want to get involved in, plus deposits have to be held by a regulated body and not the landlord.

It’s managed by a private organisation though and there are dozens of tower blocks with the same cladding in Labour and Conservative councils.

http://metro.co.uk/2017/06/15/how-many-more-buildings-in-london-have-the-same-cladding-as-grenfell-tower-6711394/

Apparently this isn’t the first incident with this cladding.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2017/jun/15/cladding-in-2014-melbourne-high-rise-blaze-also-used-in-grenfell-tower

It used to be a part of long range environmental discussions and now, no one even mentions it. No longer PC?

Simple. The economic growth of today is largely based on inflating populations, which then allows every increasing debt levels to be sustained. A sort of birth-based Ponzi scheme.

There is a difference between the German government not wanting Typhoon and the manufacturers not wanting to develop it. Airbus has had as much to do with Typhoon development up to this point as BAE. It could be argued that BAE is looking at more future Typhoon work because the RAF is totally committed to Typhoon, but again BAE is not the only manufacturer that will benefit from upgrades to Typhoon through to 2040.

Not fundamentally. The money comes from the government, so if the government drags their heels, what the manufacturer wants to do makes no odds. And if Germany didn’t want the Typhoon, WTF did they join the project? Doesn’t really inspire one with confidence does it? Maybe they’ll end up not wanting this Airbus fighter either.

This is just wishful thinking. Fighter programs are devilishly expensive and slow moving. If France were to get serious about developing a new aircraft today they would be lucky to have it available in the early 2030s… at a cost of several tens of billions of dollars in development alone. Such a program could only happen in the context of a completely different fiscal/security environment. The same applies to the rest of Europe. Even if several of the bigger players pooled their resources a new project wouldn’t come close to making sense.

I don’t know about that, but Spain is definitely a weak link economically.

The main point about Airbus asking Dassault to partner is that they are running out of fast jet work. Once Typhoon production stops what upgrades are they looking at? I know they have had in house uav design work but again, what has that achieved?

Airbus was never interested in Typhoon development work, it’s one of the reasons it is where it is.

Which UAV are you talking about? Taranis learning will become part of FCAS development.

Well my view was a bit simplified but one use of FCAS will be for interdiction, which has historically been a Tornado role but there is definitely some overlap in historic roles, e.g. F-35B will do some Tornado work.

https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=DB7xDQAAQBAJ&pg=PA92&lpg=PA92&dq=FCAS+interdiction&source=bl&ots=xtp6HOoblF&sig=2rLBslByR_2Ui6y-A5nyaIFI8uY&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwihn-zW2r_UAhWTOsAKHQiIDD0Q6AEIJDAA#v=onepage&q=FCAS%20interdiction&f=false

http://www.airforce-technology.com/features/featurefuture-combat-air-system-uk-and-france-move-ahead-4893221/

FCAS is the most ambitious programme of its kind in Europe. Two national designs, one French and one British, will be developed, followed by a design that will be taken forward jointly. The end result should be a UCAS capability that can perform sustained surveillance, target designation, intelligence gathering and strike missions in hostile territories.

Never in the field of economics was so much owed to so many for doing so little.

– Labour manifesto.

Every other segment voted more for labour according to a new survey

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk…-a7788696.html

Since votes are anonymous, how could they have produced that age spread?