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Tuesday 31 January 2012

A shame

But it had to happen to a faithful friend.

I served in the ship pictured  below, eleven times.

percy1

As the first ship to sail into Stanley Harbour after the Argentinian surrender on June 14, 1982, Sir Percivale won a special place in the hearts of islanders and her crew.

And now:

percy2

Now, 28 years after Argentina invaded the Falklands, this once great servant of the Royal Fleet Auxiliary is dying by a thousand cuts.

Work on dismembering the rusting hulk in a Merseyside dry dock began in June and is already well under way.

Simon Capps, 35, sales manager of ship recycling company Leavesley International, said: ‘Many servicemen come to visit the ships we dismantle and shed a few tears.

‘All the steel goes off to China and eastern Europe and will probably come back as cars or even a can of beans in your cupboard.’ In her pomp the 5,674-tonne vessel could carry 500 troops and 50 crew.

Oh well, mustn’t dwell in the past.

ACTA: The new threat to the net

More prohibition on it’s way.

ACTA - a global treaty - could allow corporations to censor the Internet. Negotiated in secret by a small number of rich countries and corporate powers, it would set up a shadowy new anti-counterfeiting body to allow private interests to police everything that we do online and impose massive penalties -- even prison sentences -- against people they say have harmed their business.

If you want to make a stand sign the petition HERE

1,217,870 1,218,175  have signed. Help us get to our new target of 2,000,000.