You don't see many of these for sale on line - air craft carrier, one previous lady owner

[meditrina]

Ark Royal, for sale on line.

Sad way to go...

It wasn't a real aircraft carrier - it was a through deck cruiser! The old Ark (that my Dad served on) was a real aircraft carrier.

Anyway, there are only submarines and......targets!!!

That aside, it is sad, but if they change their tiny minds quickly and revisit SDSR, as Libya gets mission creep, the sale may be pulled yet.

Trust a matelot to pop up with further detail!

The assumptions underpinning SDSR look ever rockier, but can it be revisited?

Well, if they can revisit EMA and do U turns on other things,then they can on SDSR (starting with reinstating the LOA cuts).

SDSR can be revisited but it would cause huge egg on face of govt and there won't be enough public pressure because it doesn't effect the money in their pockets as EMA does - sorry cynical view !

It also depends on how much they will load HM Forces once strikes start kicking in. If Afghanistan (purple), Libya (dark and light blue for now), covering for the Prison Officers, presumably the same for the police and fire brigade as and when they strike, are all running concurrently, then they have a problem as there is only so far good will may only stretch so far when the Forces redundancies start to hit.

An aside - the dear Govt sold off a lot of the Green Goddesses in about 2005. Would it be possible to cover a firefighters' strike? I'm not sure the civvie fire engines are squaddie proof!

We did it before using their engines in 02/03

DH was busy elsewhere those years, so it rather passed me by.

Good for the general public if it can be done - I take it your confidence in doing it again means that fire engines haven't changed much in the last decade!

Also, that training time can be fitted in: how long was needed last time?

I notice that the military was not used for the latest round of London strikes (that might be where I got the idea that the newest fire engines were too specialised without very lengthy training) - maybe too expensive?

mpsw, I think you will find if the military cover fire fighters on strike they are not actually allowed to do a lot. Last time my DH said you can't enter a burning building, you can't rescue people if it puts you in a hot position. Really they were just there to stop fires spreading, they were also not allowed to cut people out of cars. All because of health and safety and the risk of being sued.