[QUOTE=mike currill;2180495]

The British, much to my disgust, are a prime example of putting people in the wrong jobs. Seems to be a case of “you’re from an education background you’ll do for minister of agriculture. You’re from a farming background, minister of aviation for you.”

it is bizarre isn’t it?

there seems to be this odd (not as odd as my computer selectively refusing to do capitals but odd) view that if you put a Dr (or even worse Nurse) in charge of health they will feel sympathy for that department and not do what must be done, so no military for mod or teachers in charge of education (which is really odd as supposedly there are more ex teachers in parliament than any other feeder profession but no way a teacher (or lsa) would ever be allowed to take the reigns)

weirdly Lord chancellor used to be an exception as (s)he had to be a lawyer but even that changed recently

It goes deeper though in UK society, I remember (a not very recent) survey of engineering employers to find out what desirable qualities were for executive positions and the right independent school and an arts degree from Oxbridge ranked well above a relevant technical degree

one of those “war is too important to be left to the generals” situations I suppose

JSF will be made to work (our spam cousins will throw money at it until it does just as they have with almost any other big programme with technical issues) and technically the STOVL version is km ahead of any alternative. I just hope that costs don’t keep rising to the point that it becomes the new B2 ( technically frickin awesome but so expensive that it becomes impossible to have a big fleet so unit cost goes up so fleet size goes down) rather than the new f16 that we were all promised

Please can a MOD delete this. I’m sick of seeing Rii’s racist drivel.

Thanks 🙂

I fear that you may have jumped on the wrong post by Rii here old chap

That may be a little inaccurate (no nuclear deterrent in Japan and Japan being even more keen than UK to pay over the odds for small orders in order to maintain industrial capability with the inherent risk of corruption that this brings for example) but I can see nothing racist or naughty in that post

The best option would be a fleet of renovated Vulcans IMHO.

Rather boringly I assumed that Typhoon will replace Hawk (a la Blue Angels F18s and Thunderbirds F16s) but renovated Vulcans would self-evidently be better. Maybe with lots of MadRat’s mini GTs for fuel efficiency.

i guess it 100 harpoons , i dont think Kirov can carry 1000 anti air missiles

My (no doubt faulty) memory is that the number is based upon Kirov having escorts (with their own SAMs) as well
The huge number (I’m with you thinking its 100 but as I say it’s been a while) is to cover doing enough damage after many have been shot down

Beaverworks is right

That is positively indecent

As a Scot Al, I was expecting a dollop of Haggis to have been included in the dish…..

D’oh. Obvious in retrospect.

I have eaten haggis twice. One was lovely the other completely dull and forgettable.

Mary Berry’s How to Cook is a good little tome. ( I bought it for Mrs Al to no great effect but it is dead handy for the times when I cannot remember for the life of me how long to cook (ingredient x) for)

Al

Risotto

I am too lazy to worry about using proper risotto rice
I make a load for Saturday tea for the whole family and then use for lunch during week at work (caveat one should not really reheat rice as the food poisoning bacteria in rice is spore forming and reheating rice is up there as being one of the biggest causes of food poisoning in the uk, I do it but if you intend to at least have your eyes open)

Put two pans of water onto boil
Stick some veggy stock (or gravy granules) in one and chicken granules in t other
Put a couple of frozen (and thus cheap) chicken breast in pan one
Poach for 5 to 10 minutes
Take out and cut into smaller bits
Chop up an onion and whatever veg you have to hand
Get third pan (sauce frying or wok) put some olive oil and the onions in
Heat and stir til brown
Chuck chicken in stir til a bit brown
Throw rest of veg in (and a tin of sweet corn if you have in cupboard)
Throw in cup of rice
Stir a bit
Chuck in that second pan of pseudo stock from the beginning
(I like to add some mussels and prawns in now)
Bring heat down to simmer
Leave for 10 minutes stirring occasionally
Get teaspoon take out a few grains of rice and see if cooked
If so heat off and serve
If not chuck in some more liquid and give it another 5

Grate some cheese (strong cheddar for philistines like me)
Dish up
(If keeping some for another meal put in one or more open containers for at least an hour before covering (you can leave cooked food for 4 hours before refrigerating so don’t be tempted to Tupperware it up too quick and get condensation and mold)

That one actually looks really rather pretty. It also looks to me like an archetypal fighter jet.