Where is Great Britain?

[Platapus]

Where is Great Britain?
I think you make a slight right at Iceland press on. If you see a bunch of Irish people, keep on going around. You will hit it.

[Oberon]

Originally Posted by Platapus

Where is Great Britain?
I think you make a slight right at Iceland press on. If you see a bunch of Irish people, keep on going around. You will hit it.

If the people have long beards and throw axes at you, you've gone too far.

[Jimbuna]

Originally Posted by Oberon

If the people have long beards and throw axes at you, you've gone too far.

LOL

[STEED]

Originally Posted by Oberon

I'm going to waffle a bit here, and it might get of Skybirdian length.

Dose anyone have the phone number to the Samaritans I just read the most depressing post every!

[Catfish]

^ and "skybirdian length"..

Thanks for the sobre summing up, but this is your take on England's situation, not the european one.

As the US has already done, England and now also Germany is burning its middle class, and it begins to show at the edges. It is all about money, and no other values at all it seems.

Interest and interest on interest is the real killer of all, money that produces itself without connection to real goods, not backed up by anything, and the accompanying locust capitalism. Not even intended or planned (as you said about Mrs Thatcher who used the wrong tools to push the economy, but all going horribly wrong), but 'just happening'.

Imagine Jesus had a penny, some 2000 years ago. And let us say he got interest of, say, 5 percent on it, until today.
He would now have 150 Millions of earths, made of pure gold.
Economy still tells us, that expanding and growth has to happen, but economy is not and was never an exact science! Send them to hell along with the banks, and get back to some solid funding of currency, like gold or even bricks.

[Schroeder]

Originally Posted by Catfish

Interest and interest on interest is the real killer of all, money that produces itself without connection to real goods, not backed up by anything, and the accompanying locust capitalism. Not even intended or planned (as you said about Mrs Thatcher who used the wrong tools to push the economy, but all going horribly wrong), but 'just happening'.

That's not exactly how it's supposed to work. You give money to a bank and they give you interest (or at least they used too in times that seem long ago... ). Does that money they pay you come from nowhere? No, the bank either loans that money to someone for more interest than they pay you or invest into something that is supposed to return a profit. So it's not money out of nowhere. It's investing into something that will return a profit. The interest is compensation for parting with part of your money to enable other projects. The whole thing just starts to collapse when the money is invested and no return on investment is achieved....

[STEED]

Time to re-post this..

money as debt


money as debt 2


money as debt 3


Posted here a few years ago and still good.

[ExFishermanBob]

Originally Posted by STEED

Dose anyone have the phone number to the Samaritans I just read the most depressing post every!

I thought it realistic and quite refreshing.

Where is Britain? Mr Angry of the North Atlantic writes...

Until we and our politicians accept that we are now just a little European county with a history of empire (like, say, the Italians, Dutch, Danish, Spanish and so on) rather than some major global player (which costs so much more than we can really afford) and that the thing that we were pre-war (or even during it) was destroyed by it, just as much as Germany was, Britain will keep going around in circles and not quite know what to do or not do. That, I think is where we are. Perplexed. Hence the sort-of-in, sort-of-not approach to Europe and everything else.

The "stick-on hairy chest" of Trident is, frankly, indicative of this old thinking as are two huge aircraft carriers with no planes or the 600 armoured cars just ordered. Force projection - aye, right: let's face it, these really look like vanity projects to get a seat at the table with the big boys and girls. A more sensible approach would be to, say, invest heavily in submarine detection, submarine H/Ks and (tactical) nuclear bombers that can also be used conventionally. Lots of big, shiny, noisy ones that make a point about defence and can't be missed - one bomber will always get through. Russian Bears anyone?

Want a vanity project? - here's one for you. Equip the second carrier as a hospital ship, with operating theatres, water, accommodation, medics, you name it. Send it to where it's needed, to support disaster zones. Paint it white and call it the "Slarty Bartfast" or whatever. Too expensive? Really?

Whereas loading it with planes, missiles and the like will be cheap, of course and would make us look like an Empire again. I forgot.

[Oberon]

Trident is, unfortunately, a necessary evil. I doubt there's any nation that will want to nuke us right now in the world, not even the French, however that's something that could change at any point in the future. I'd love to be able to see the back of Trident, as well as all nuclear weapons, but now that the nuclear genie is out of the bottle it's just not going to happen.

In regards to the carriers, yeah, it is essentially a big exercise in chest swelling that we can barely afford. I'd say that the F-35s can be dropped and replaced with F-18s, but we've already made the carrier with a ramp on it so that scuppers that idea, unless someone wants to put RATOs on the F-18s.

I think that the two carriers, if they ever get finished, will fit in well with the French carrier, as a European defence scheme. There are still some things we have to defend after all, a certain island near Argentina for one, but yes, certainly the design and construction of the two carriers has been an exercise in how not to run a navy.

[ExFishermanBob]

Originally Posted by Oberon

Trident is, unfortunately, a necessary evil. I doubt there's any nation that will want to nuke us right now in the world, not even the French, however that's something that could change at any point in the future. I'd love to be able to see the back of Trident, as well as all nuclear weapons, but now that the nuclear genie is out of the bottle it's just not going to happen.

In regards to the carriers, yeah, it is essentially a big exercise in chest swelling that we can barely afford. I'd say that the F-35s can be dropped and replaced with F-18s, but we've already made the carrier with a ramp on it so that scuppers that idea, unless someone wants to put RATOs on the F-18s.

I think that the two carriers, if they ever get finished, will fit in well with the French carrier, as a European defence scheme. There are still some things we have to defend after all, a certain island near Argentina for one, but yes, certainly the design and construction of the two carriers has been an exercise in how not to run a navy.

Indeed - depressing really. I think either one or none, with the surplus used for more useful, smaller and swifter vessels would have been sensible.

Replacing Trident with a similar, cheaper (and perhaps offensive rather than retaliatory) system, perhaps combining with conventional missiles might also be useful around that certain island. At least then you can just pop-up offshore every so often to remind people that you are around.

[GT182]

Originally Posted by Rockstar

Where is Great Britain?

Third door on the left.

[Herr-Berbunch]

Originally Posted by Eichhornchen

We are, are we not, supposed to be subscribing to this European Rapid-Reaction Force? That's something, I suppose, but more about putting fires out than enforcing Policy.

Pass, but we are (or at least were) part of the Allied Rapid Reaction Corps, which may have evolved into ERRF. Did some exercises with them in Germany, all good fun.

[Jimbuna]

Originally Posted by Herr-Berbunch

Pass, but we are (or at least were) part of the Allied Rapid Reaction Corps, which may have evolved into ERRF. Did some exercises with them in Germany, all good fun.

'Major' Wreford-Brown and his men are off to Canada for exercises in the summer as part of the UK Army's spearhead brigade