Another classic balls up, courtesy of certain bufoons populating our ‘beloved coalition’ If it wasn’t for real, it would be funny, but it is and it ain’t:rolleyes:

Thanks for the info Peter.

Nice ones Hugh. Just look at the variety of types and liveries back then! So much more interesting than the bland ‘AirBoEmBus’ types that carpet the aprons today. Mind you, I can well remember being peeed of by the endless stream of Tridents per hour at Heathrow……..oops, sorry Neil..no offence;)

Born in Ongar Essex. Now live in Cambridgeshire, we’re very big on Universities up here;) In fact, I can see the ‘spires’ from one of them in the distance, from my front room window. BTW Phantom, personally I enjoyed your Iran thread.

IMO, the explanation of the Russians, and to a lesser extent, the Chinese attitudes to Syria are two fold, however they are both inextricably linked.

1. Military. The Russians have only recently put the final touches, to a significant upgrading of their already substantial naval base on the Syrian coast at Tartous. If the events in Syria eventually result in a change of government that is more predisposed to the west, its highly likely that the Russians would lose this installation, and thereby its only permanent military base in the whole of the Med. IMO this would reduce dramatically Russia’s influence in the region.

2. Economic. The Russians sell a very substantial amount of arms, heavy machinery, and other miscellaneous products to Syria. The military aspect goes right back to the times of Bashar’s father, Havez Al Assad. During the cold war era, Syria was an integral part of the Soviet foreign policy and its ideological/military strategy for the Eastern Mediterranean and Middle East. It should also be borne in mind, that the Syrian Al Baath party has its roots in it own interpretation of Soviet style socialism, thus making it a natural ally for the Soviets, and this has continued with the Russian Federation. Despite the political and ideological collapse of the USSR, bilateral relations between Russia and Syria have largely remained unaffected. The stakes for Russia in this current situation, are very high indeed, they know it, and so does the West.

Phantom, I hope you won’t be offended, I love the American people, I have both relatives and good American friends in Tuscaloosa Al, but I’ve no time for your politicians or the policies that they pursue. There, I’ve come clean.

As for the antics of Russia and China, I think that their aims are basically the same as each other, self interest, as indeed are those of the US govt. Back in the days of the cold war, IMO, things regarding these two countries were a little different, in that most of their foreign policies were based on two major premises.

1) Inate hostility to the US and the west in general, and indeed towards one another at times.

2) A lot of their foreign policy decisions in the past, had more to do with ideology, and their ceaseless pursuit of the ideal of the ‘Socialist Utopia’ than economics, I should know, I used to be a card carrying communist in my misspent youth. Today, these decisions seem to be dictated more by economic objectives than ideology, although I think that there is still a very real political divide between these two states and the west, particularly with China. Wether the US likes it or not, and I suspect it doesn’t, it’s going to have to share centre stage with the rising giant that is China.

3) IMO, Iran may not have have started out with the aim of developing an atomic weapon, and it may well turn out to be that they were driven into it by the foreign policies of other countries towards it, a cornered rat will eventually jump. I find all this current ‘sabre rattling’ by the west and Israel and Iran very disturbing. The price of releasing the ‘dogs of war’ could be truly horrifying. Iraq was a cake walk. Iran is a whole different scenario, and I think that the great unknown factors will be, strangely enough, what positions will be taken by our old friends Russia and China. Isn’t there an old Chinese proverb containing the phrase ‘May you always live in interesting times’ or something similar, and I think that indeed we do. Well, that’s my two penneth. Thanks for lookin.

Some nice shots Neil. I was down at Myrtle Avenue last Friday, and got ‘close up and personal’ with the Egyptair 777-300, that is one beautiful craft. My younger brother was on his first ever visit to the ‘Ave’ and was ‘gobsmacked’ I think that’s the current descriptive these days I believe:) More of your pics anytime please;)