Saturday 27 August 2016

Jeremy Corbyn why he is useless.

Corbyn goes off the rails

The #traingate saga is very revealing about Corbyn and co, it highlights a couple of major problems. Someone, on this journey out of London, seems to have hit on an idea of how to highlight some of the problems with rail services, so far so good. They have then decided to make a little video, however, they should have noticed while going off to make this video some of the problems, namely the empty or apparently empty seats. If you make an attack or criticism of someone, they are most likely going to defend themselves, they are likely to ask their staff who are witnesses, then go on to look at CCTV, so you had better make sure your argument and video is bullet proof.
A proper approach would be first to check the train and if it was not viable on this train as it wasn't, then plan to get a train with worse overcrowding and do the video on that. It should be difficult to find a more overcrowded train or an excuse to be on it.
In this case, the team don't seem to have been able to imagine that others would not just take their statements at face value, this is a massive failing in empathy and shows a rather great defect in a working theory of mind.
On a simple price level if you are arranging a journey then you do pre-book it, to get the best price and to secure a seat. If you don't it shows a very great lack of organisation, that JC and his team didn't do it shows they don't care about costs and the have no idea how to turn up ready to get to work, at best it shows monumental disorganisation, something which is not good in a leader of a party never mind a country.

Impractical

Practicality does not seem to be a trait Corbyn suffers from, he has the air of someone who has gone through life without having to make any hard decisions on everyday subjects, he has never been a government minister or shadow. When things did not go the way he wanted he has just walked away, whether it is from polytechnic or his marriage, and that the way his politics work. He is like a child given a choice between 2 things that they want and unwilling to give up either ends up with neither. He may want to make everyone's lives rich and fulfilling but when they only option is to give them a bit more food and some more heat & power, he will forgo that in pursuit of his nirvana.
He seems to have acquired lots of followers of a similar ilk, some of them like him from posher more privilege end of the society, others of the more SWP persuasion. The first group will let the world burn rather than compromise, out of selfishness. The second group do not want a Labour government they want the Tories to keep grinding the face of the poor into the dirt so that in the end they can pick up the pieces in a revolution. Though when you take into account the suffering to get to that point and the suffering to recover from it, you may have added to the total misery of the poor not relieved it one iota.

Childish

One of the most childish traits amongst political followers is the belief that everyone else actually knows that they are right and that they are simply being opposed by people for their own vested interest. In the case of JC's followers, he rebelled against the labour leaders ship because of principle, while anyone who rebels against him is doing it out of treachery.
They seem to think that if the party votes for JC in the upcoming leadership vote then the PLP should fall into line. David Cameron won the countries leadership battle at the polls? do they think everyone should just fall into line, after all, more voted in that election than in the party election! You can see hints of this in the #BREXIT vote, JC is quite clearly pro #BREXIT as are a lot of his supporters so that another case of towing the line because of the public's vote.
I can't tell whether this is hypocrisy or stupidity but one way and the other they are simply picking the votes to follow and votes to ignore to suit their own opinion.

What is his place in Politics

The best place for Corbyn in Politics is as a prophet, crying in the wilderness occasionally prodding people into asking questions about their own compromises in a practical world. At the moment he and his followers are acting like a group of 6th form politicos, who haven't even had face up to reality in any way, even someone with experience of undergraduate politics would not be a nieve as JC and the crew. Simply having to debate the allocation of mini buses or agree to fund the Tory student group as much as the Labour one would be a step into the practical world they have yet to take.
The person JC and the boys most remind me of, is Jake Morrison not a name that most of you will have heard of but an object less in impractical politics.
By putting their agenda before getting a Labour government JC and his supporters are stabbing the poor in the back and twisting the knife.



Thursday 11 August 2016

Nimrod reborn

If you grew up in the 70s or 80s the RAFs Nimrod was a common sight on TV and in the sky. It was based on the de Haviland Comet the world's first Jetliner, sometimes referred to as the pregnant comet. There were several attempts produce a different version of the aircraft. The last 2 the AEW3 and the MRA4 never entered service but did cost a lot of money, the cancellation of the projects very near to completion was controversial as was the capability gap left by the MRA4.

Remains of MRA4

A lot of the MRA4s problems were put down to trying to graft new wings onto an old fuselage, designed and built before the days of computer-controlled machining, basically, every airframe was different. The decision to do this part replacement was always controversial, BAe did not want to do it but HMG insisted, the logic was unclear but to me, it seems flawed and possibly the product of some accounts wizardry. Now 6 years later we are left buying Boeing patrol Maritime Aircraft and with the intellectual property to build half of a new aircraft.
The RAF still has large capability gaps, which need filling, the MRA4 for all it fault had some impressive capability, most notably it's range of about 7000 miles, which exceeds the range of any of the V-bombers. With a bit of work and a few 100 million quid, you could build a new aircraft using all the new bits designed for the MRA4, wings, engine, flight avionics. Design a new fuselage and you have a decent airframe with potentially many uses. Let us call this the Large Combat Airframe(LCA), it not stealthy it's not at the bleeding edge of anything, but it is big, it has a bomb bay and it can carry a large combat crew.
I propose the following:

1st Production line

First, a new fuselage is designed, with a bulkhead between the cockpit and the main body. That cockpit is a self-contained 2 man unit, that the crew enter via a ladder up the landing gear, possibly it has ejector seats. The tail is a V tail because while this isn't a stealth aircraft there is no point in giving it a radar cross-section bigger than needed.  The rear section is as bare as possible, perhaps some cables hanging down from the roof, for use later.
There is a full defensive avionics fit, and the passenger section can be empty and unpressurised. The rear bulkhead has a door in it and some steps for self-loading, or if it can be done, wide enough for parachuting from. There is at least 1 big cargo door, perhaps a full quarter section, through which modules/pallets can be loaded into the top floor pre confined for the specialised roles.
The only state of the art bits I'd consider is Fly by Light, as used by the Kawasaki P-1, which is fly by wire but using fibre optics rather than heavy wires and Power by Wire, partly used on the F-35, which eliminates all those heavy hydraulics and replaces them with light wires. Similar Unites where used onbothe the Vulcan and VC-10 there where referedto as Powered
Flight Control Units
or Electro-hydraulic actuator When it rolls off the production line underneath is a big hole filled with a stress-bearing structure to make the airframe flyable. It fully equipped with defence avionics it might even have wing hard points for general use but other than flying up to the enemy and waving it is useless.

2nd Production line

This is where the aircraft is specialised. 

Nimrod:Andraste Bomber standoff, bomb bus or patrol

If you want a bomber, you take out the lower blanking structure and bolt in a bomb bay, perhaps not the whole length of the aircraft. The front section is fitted with a designator pod, while the rear section has some extra intelligence gathering, extra fuel tanks go above in the unpressurised rear section so if it takes a small hit no problem.

Nimrod:Sulis Maritime Patrol

A bit smaller bomb bay, this time, the front underneath section if fitted with an observer post were the MK1 RAF eyeball can be put to best use. The rear module fitted with a module for dropping sonar buoys.

Nimrod:Toutatis Arsenal plane

Full-length bomb bay stuffed with all sort of effectors.

Nimrod: Coventina Forward refueller

With all the defensive avionics you can put this a lot near the front line than a converted passenger jet, just put tanks everywhere.

Nimrod Belatucadros: Defended transport.

To haul personnel and machinery it to the hotter spots, perhaps drop them off via the back door. Use the bottom as a cargo bay.

Nimrod:Vinotonus Standoff Radar.

A bigger version of Raytheon Sentinel.

Nimrod:Visucius ELINT/SIGINT

Well it should be quiet with the Fly by Light

Nimrod:Alaisiagae Forward UAV/Drone control.

Pilots flying planes from Planes.

Nimrod:Clíodhna


Other users

If you were France/Germany/Indian or even the US you could buy airframes of the 1st production line and then fit them out yourself. You would benefit from the reduced cost of the production line of the airframe and then tailor it to your own use.
The US has made good use of the C135 in a fair number of these roles, and it wasn't designed for such flexibility.

Reconfiguring

If the production of a dedicated version is a 2 stage process then perhaps the 2nd stage can be undone, allowing a fleet to be reconfigured perhaps not on the front line and not overnight, but an airframe that could go from a transport to full armed bomber in a month would make for a very flexible fleet. It would also allow for upgrades with far less downtime.