As will the ‘New Iraqi Air Force’ I’m sure.

But the colonisation of a foreign land is now legitimate because the colonists have been there for “100 years”? Still not a very good precedent.

Frankly, as I pointed out earlier, I agree that there is nothing that the Argentine govt. can do now to ‘retake’ the islands as the population is now wholly British. I do think, however, that justifying what is esentially colonisation through talk of democracy and self-determination is a bit rich and that the Argentines should have full or equal fishing rights to the adjacent seas – particularly if the islanders themselves aren’t going to fish there and simply selling their rights as Jester is suggesting. The Falklanders should of course have all the rights to remain on the islands under British rule but to exploit the natural resources as well is treading over the line.

British land ownership laws blur the issue further as they mean that the islanders are simply lease holders on state land. This amounts to a direct case of the British state handing out leases on land that by right should belong to another state.

This rather heated debate about the EU budget is the stuff breakdowns in economic unions are made of. I feel sorry for all the smaller poorer countries who just want to stay in/get into the EU because it would make their situation easier. The French, Germans and British are all in the top 10 richest countries in the world and yet they’re going to bicker over, what esentially amounts to, a few pennies amongst themselves and potentially ruin the whole show for everyone else. Economically this debate isn’t really a big deal for anyone, on the other hand, politically its a loaded gun with a hair trigger.

Musashi,

This is the problem. There are no clear rules on land ownership and one of the ways I chose to illustrate this is the hypothetical case of Birmingham a decade from now. Will the people of Birmingham in 2015 (the Pakistani majority) also have the same right to self determination? Or if the Birmingham example is too toutchy why not another hypothetical scenario – say Vladivostok becoming a Chinese majority city in a decade or so. Part of the problem with your argument is that, if set in stone, it allows countries to colonise parts of other countries and then scream blue-murder when their now majority population doesn’t get the right to self-determination. This is not an acceptable precedent to set in my opinion.

F-35 Mustang? F-35 Thunderbolt? F-35 Blackwidow? F-35 Spider?

Anyway what kind of progressive world do we live in when we’re still naming our weapons of war with animal names or natural phenomena like some tribal society?

How about F-35 Tank? Or F-35 Rifle? Hey, this actually sounds good (unlike the first two); F-35 Bullet.

Or why not adopt a slightly stalinist option and start naming things after our leaders? F-35 Bush – yuck! Maybe not.

MiG (or MIG or whatever guise you wanna put it in) did manage to the M2 and to continue work on the LFI succesor. Development work has continued throughout even the worst periods of Russia’s and MiG’s recent economic history – often at a snail’s pace admittedly. Also the MiG-29S is R-77 capable already.

What I’m curious about is what hidden costs you’re referring to. The IN got the Gorshkov esentially for free – the deal, as I remember it, was that they would pay for its refurbishment and conversion (an expensive and lengthy process I’m sure) and that they would buy a complement of MiG-29Ks to operate from it. All of the contracts were wrangled over for months/years and both India and Russia had locked horns over every penny. I’m sure people who are more intimately accquainted with the purchase will be able to shed more light on this. Personally I’m under the impression that India actually got quite a good deal all round.

And as another note, had the IN somehow purchased the Rafale for the former Gorshkov and the purchase went ahead without any glitches or delays I’m sure I wouldn’t be the only one to be astounded and surprised.

Its weird the way the system makes you get so hyped up and stressed about your GCSEs and then, as soon as you’ve taken them, nobody takes any notice of them whatsoever (except for getting onto A-Levels). Once you finish A-Levels and are working or at university nobody cares what you got (except for getting into the right uni). Once you finish your degree nobody gives a damn if you got a 1st or a 3rd (unless you want to do a masters or PhD). Basically, the only people who give a damn what you got in any of the exams are the people in the next educational institution you’re going into (and believe me, even they don’t care that much).