THE ORIGINAL SIN

Bloody idiot.

Sun, beer, culture, and disorder.

Mrs FE and myself touched down safely in Madrid early on Monday morning. having looked at all the options of getting to our hotel (Westin Palace), we decided to catch a ride on the Metro. On emerging from the final stop with blinking eyes from the bright sunlight we were met with a strange but worrying sight. There were Police and Police vans everywhere you looked. (In the UK you are lucky to see one let alone hundreds). After a few seconds we realised why. There were thousands of Spaniards coming down the road behind us. At first I thought that somehow my Spanish readers had got word of my trip and were coming to meet me. However one look at the signs they were carrying made me think that a lynching of this blogger might be their real aim. The placards all had one word on them. NO.

Anyhow Mrs FE and myself, decided we’d best scuttle off (Best describes the action of a person with a small wheelie case) in the direction of our hotel. Worryingly it soon became apparent that where we went, the mob seemed to follow. As we approached the road in which our hotel was situated we noticed that the police presence was increasing by leaps and bounds and we redoubled our efforts to obtain sanctuary in our monastery Hotel.

This was not to be. With a baying mob on our heels we arrived at the hotel’s road to be confronted with metal barriers and three lines of police in riot gear blocking the thoroughfare. Ooh err. Unfortunately my Spanish is only good for Hallo (Hola), Two beers please (Dos cervesa pour favor), and thankyou (Gracias), so needless to say the police didn’t want to lets us through. (Did they think we were some activist fifth column? You tell me?).

Of course Mrs FE, being fairly organised, managed to produce from her Portmanteau handbag, a map of the area, and we found a back route which would take us to the entrance of the hotel. Luck was now on our side as the back was only lightly defended by the police and we managed to blag our way through the barricades and finally checked into the hotel.

After we checked in we nipped outside to see what was going on. The demonstrators were doing their best to pull down the barriers but were dissuaded from doing so by the occasional baton strike from the odd annoyed member of the Policia.

Anyway we got bored with this and decided to head of into various areas to see what the city was like.

One thing we never found out that day was why had that street been targeted?

Do you want to know why? Do you want to know what happened on day two?

You tell me, and I’ll tell you the cost of cigarettes and how much, two gin and tonics and two large whiskeys cost me in the hotel bar.

Just a test.

From my phone.

The Sun The Sun

Your Blog host and Mrs FE are off to the sun at O’crack sparrowfart  tomorrow morning, so posting will be light to non existent for a few days. (I’m sure the readers of this blog will find that they can live a useful existence with out  resorting to reading my usual drivel).

The reason we’re off to Madrid is that it’s been organised by my Son in Law and my Daughter, in thanks for the organisation of their wedding last week.

We’re being treated to a three day break in Madrid and can be expected to immerse ourselves in the culture of that grand old city. However due to the high temperatures at this time of year, we will have to keep hydrated at all times.

I have now downloaded to my phone an App that not only steers me to all the culture you would expect, but more importantly, gives me every bar that exists in the city.

We intend, in the bar breaks, to absorb as much culture as is possible in the time. I’m hoping to see a cultural riot if at all possible, if not it’s going to have to be the Prado museum or some such.

Anyhoo. Don’t expect a blog post till Thursday. Keep yourselves amused in the rain.

Words

A friend just sent me this:

 Europe in a "few" words

Pythagoras' theorem - 24 words.
Lord's Prayer - 66 words.
Archimedes' Principle - 67 words.
10 Commandments - 179 words.
Gettysburg address - 286 words.
US Declaration of Independence - 1,300 words.
US Constitution with all 27 Amendments – 7,818 words.
EU regulations on the sale of cabbage – 26,911 words

Now that’s what I call a real Beach babe

And I quote:

Standing confidently on the beach, with a rifle casually slung over her shoulder, you would think twice about knocking over this woman’s sandcastle. 

The bikini-clad subject is thought to be a soldier and a member of the highly-trained Israeli Defence Forces.

Since the surprising photo, snapped in Tel Aviv, was posted on the internet it has gone viral with many users reacted with shock at seeing such a hostile weapon on a sunny beach.

She’s there to protect the sun loungers from marauding germans.

Olympic security

Much is being made in the MSM today about the complete balls up made by the private contactor’s lack of ability to recruit enough security personnel.

However that is not the purpose of this post. I’d just like to inform my reader about what I think is a more interesting security problem.

Every so often we are regaled with stories about locals not wishing to have missiles situated on their roofs. It’s these systems which in my mind could cause the most problems.

These sophisticated anti air weapons such as

 Rapier

Rapier is a British surface-to-air missile developed for the British Army and Royal Air Force. Entering service in 1971, it eventually replaced all other anti-aircraft weapons in Army service; guns for low-altitude targets, and the English Electric Thunderbird^[1], used against longer-range and higher-altitude targets. As the expected air threat moved from medium-altitude strategic missions to low-altitude strikes, the fast reaction time and high manoeuvrability of the Rapier made it more formidable than either of these weapons, replacing most of them by 1977. It remains the UK's primary air-defence weapon after almost 35 years of service, and its deployment is expected to continue until 2020

 

and StarStreak

The Starstreak HVM (High Velocity Missile) is designed to counter threats from very high performance, low-flying aircraft and fast 'pop up' strikes by helicopter attacks.

The missile, which travels at more than three times the speed of sound, uses a system of three dart-like projectiles, allowing multiple hits on the target. HVM can be fired from the shoulder, from a lightweight multiple launcher or from the Stormer armoured vehicle.

Typhoon

Eurofighter Typhoon is the worlds most advanced new generation multi-role/swing-role combat aircraft available on the market.

Wonderful bits of kit I’m sure, but what are they going to be used against and when? Now it’s pretty certain that the terrorists won’t have access to military aircraft, so this is the more likely scenario.

A jumbo jet travelling from Dubai to Gatwick is just crossing the south coast of England. Air traffic control notices that it is heading off course and heading for London. Air traffic control tries to contact the jumbo but no reply is received. So what happens now?

Well. If the chain of command is quickly traversed they could scramble a Typhoon or two from Northolt. However what do they do as the jumbo starts flying over the densely packed outer suburbs of London? By this time word will have been passed to the Rapier and Starstreak batteries that there is a jumbo jet acting suspiciously and to lock on and await further orders. But time is running out fast for a meaningful decision.

And there we are at the crux of the Dilemma. The decision to launch or not.

If you were the man at the top of the pyramid, would you be able to making the decision to shoot down a jumbo jet with a full load of passengers, over one of the most densely populated areas of the country?

Could you, the man with the finger on the trigger, pull that trigger knowing you would be likely to kill hundreds, if not thousands?

That’s why I consider them as window dressing to make the PTB look as if they are being tough.

Do buck up

I’m referring to the group from CACC (campaign against climate change). Look you lot, I signed up to your daily E mail report and haven’t had one for two days now.

I’m really looking forward to participating in your

RACE TO ZERO (CARBON by 2030!)

Organise a “Race to Zero” – with the finishing line at 2030 (as it were). There are lots of different ways to do this – it could be a real race (running, hopping, three-legged, egg-in-spoon etc) perhaps with sponsored participants, with it being as long or short as you like.

Or it could be more of a symbolic race, dress someone up as ‘Climate Apocalypse’ and race against them, or have ‘human wind turbines’ or ‘solar panels’ racing against coal-fired power stations, or oil industry bosses, or prominent skeptics.. The possibilities are endless.

How am I supposed to know what is being organised without regular contact? I intend to have a chat with George (George Monbiot, honorary president. AKA Moonbat), about your lack of zeal in keeping me up to speed.

And while you’re on about it. Can we have a little less “against change”. I would like a little change from torrential rain to a small barbecue summer. (Preferably Saturday). Not much to ask.

Up my street

Enter your post code and during the advert you'll see (VERY briefly!) the plane taxi down your street

http://taxi.ba.com/

Don’t eat Muffin

Do not show this to a leftie. He/She will explode.

Alright it’s an american vid but it puts the point across.

PS Here in the garden of England we are just experiencing our third hailstorm of the day.