The Aliens were obviously keen to learn about our latest advancements in combat aircraft and motor racing.

But it’s not “Legislation” as such. It’s based on an EU Directive which can be amended by member countries as they see fit.

If you wan’t to blame anyone, blame the CAA.

It’s a pity not all us licence payers (who pay for BBC 4) are allowed watch the channel.

It will be interesting to see how this plays out in mainland Europe – particularly to see how the French B-17 “Pink Lady” is affected. From my observation of EU regulations, there are always exemptions, exceptions and delays available to each member country. Ironically, France often makes full use of these exemptions. Britain, on the other hand, tends to adopt EU regulation with gusto, sometimes enhancing them to make them seem even more draconian – and then telling the public that it is all the EU’s fault.

Britain palys the Euro card far too often for my liking and I do suspect ulterior motives at times.

The P1154 was looked on as the operational development of the P1127. Although touted for the Royal Navy, the Admirals were not enthusiastic about it, mainly because they could foresee their beloved big carriers being reduced in size to suit the aircraft’s V/STOL capabilities. The RAF were not to keen on it either as they cpould see the fact that the exploitation of V/STOL resulted in loss of capability in other areas (range, payload, equipment etc). The P1154 therefore had few friends where it mattered and it was no surprise that it was eventually cancelled. However, in the meantime the joint UK/US/West German Tripartite Squadron had been test flying a development of the P1127 , the Kestrel, in operational conditions and were discovering how useful V/STOL could really be in the field. In particular, the US Marines saw great potential in a fully operation V/STOL aircraft. As a result, the Kestrel was further developed into the AV-8A/Harrier GR1 and ended up with the “super” Harriers in service today.

Ironically, eventually the Royal Navy DID lose its big carriers and had to make do with the Invincible class “Through Deck Cruisers” kitted out with air defence versions of the V/STOL Harrier.

Was the Paget process authentic colour or a technique for colourising what were really monochrome images?

NASCAR is the most popular form of motor racing in the US. Since Rockingham opened her in the UK, the track has been trying to promote a UK version of NASCAR called ASCAR.

NASCAR/ASCAR races can be quite dramatic, with lots of spins and hefty impacts. However, like American football, trying to persuade Europeans to watch something culturally very alien is proving very difficult.