Last year it emerged that police have already been handed ‘Chinese-style’ powers to enter private-homes and seize political posters during the London games.
The measures passed by the Government will allow officers and Olympics officials to enter homes and shops near official venues to confiscate protest material.
The powers were introduced to preserve the monopoly of official advertisers on the London 2012 site and would allow advertising posters or hoardings placed in homes to be removed.
The law was drawn so widely, however, that it includes ‘ non-commercial material’ – which could extend its reach to include legitimate campaign literature.

Unquote.

The late Markus Wolf who was head of the international department at the State Security or ‘Stasi” in the GDR said on a radio interview in Germany that if he had had the surveillance capability of the UK then he would have been a very happy man and the GDR would, in his opinion still have been around. Having visited the GDR a few times the similarities with it and ‘modern’ Britain are chilling and a very longstanding German friend of mine said recently that he felt that the UK had sleepwalked into very dangerous
territory and that we should get off our collective a*+es and do something about it soon before it is too late. As a citizen of the GDR for some 30 yrs of his life……he should know.

Not in my book! The MD11 has been and always will be a product from McDonnell Douglas and has nothing to do with Boeing, except spares support these days I suppose. I once had a trip on a Finnair MD11 some years ago and before that a DC10 of the same carrier. On both trips the aircraft and crews were great. A shame to see both types pass into Finnair’s history

I have never hidden my dislike for this type of airline and as a point of principle I refuse to fly on any of them. However the people who DO fly on them strangely seem to expect to be treated the same as those flying on full service carriers such as BA, Lufthansa etc and expect the same passenger welfare regimes that the passengers on the full service airlines enjoy….extraordinary! With this type of “airline” as with a bus or train operator you pay your fare which, according to the Ryanair business model, gets you the right to place your bum on the seat and thats it. Do you find bus and train companies puting people up in hotels and/or providing a free meal in the event of disruption? A shame that these passengers had to learn the hard way. Goodness knows I’m not defending Ryanair and its own interpretation of traditional passenger service obligations but people really have got to wake and smell that wretched coffee. You pay peanuts for the seat then you WILL be treated like monkeys. Don’t use ’em!

Short memory from a country that used to have the largest airline in the world.;)

Indeed so but the world has changed much since those days. Sadly Aeroflot is a mere shadow of the Goliath that it once was. IMO in these days of “free market” Stalinism (no pun intended) the Russians may well have to bite the bullet on this one and come to terms with the current airline operating environment, or risk financial damage to this smaller and less imposing Aeroflot. I do suspect however that the ghosts of Aeroflot Soviet Airlines still walk the corridors of its younger and smaller sibling 😉

My first car bought in 1975 was a brand new Wartburg 353 Knight saloon in white. It had a 950cc (I think) two stroke engine and cost me £850 on the road. You had to remember to put the bottle of two stroke oil in the petrol tank with every full fill up. It was very reliable and spares were very cheap and I ran it for about four years before moving onto a Lada. 🙂

Very nice! I have always liked the A310 and flew on an LH one some years ago.

I often see the HARS Connie at airshows around this country

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kVZurbr39ik

You are a lucky man Steve, it must be a beautiful sight to see and hear.

Political correctness again in the extreme.

And thats what will finish this country. A little off topic, apologies to moderator, but some years ago in the multi storey car park in Chelmsford I returned to my car and I came across a small child aged around 6 or 7 crying his heart out and calling for his mother, I asked him where he had last seen her when suddenly a woman (presumably his mother) burst through the doors and shouted at me to leave the child alone or she would call the Police. Despite my attempts to calm the whole thing down she would have none of it and bundled shopping and aforementioned child into her car and left. Would I do the same again? I’m not sure I would. Sorry mod, feel free to delete or move this.