Reposted from NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT
MAY 5, 2021
By Paul Homewood
Is there no end to this idiocy?
From the Telegraph:
I am sure his public demands no such thing. I suspect most people expect the RAF to defend the country, not play silly Greta games. And “diverting investment from equipment and platforms” will greatly harm our defences, not to mention putting the lives of his own airmen at risk.
Reminds me of a few years ago when the glorious totalitarian EU Commission dictated that ALL EU armoured vehicles must have reduced emissions, & as the great cynic & then Top Gear presenter pointed out that we could fire depleted uranium ammunition out the front, but hey, low emissions out the back!!! The lunacy has gone beyond embarrassment, how on Earth would the democratic west have won the WW2 with that mentality? The joke is no longer funny but rather frightening!!!!
We had not entirely dissimilar policies prior to WW2. Not based on emissions of course, but on appeasement in the face of military budget cuts.
Adolf may have been stopped much sooner but GB was forced to retreat to its island fortress and fight an air battle with hastily assembled Spitfires/Hurricanes et al and fresh-faced child pilots with a handful of flight hours between them.
But I’m sure it’s OK to save the planet for Iran/China et al to overrun.
Yes, we must very careful about those perfidious Persians overrunning….
Should be more concerned about ‘frogies’ from the other side of the Channel.
Wallpaper Boris and Emanuel Bonaparte this morning sent their gunboats fishing around Jersey, pass the popcorn.
It’s an election day.
He’s surrendered to the IRA.
Boris needs to burnish his strongman credentials before people start asking “How come the UK’s border is this side of the Irish Sea now?”
Posturing with re-commissioned military hardware is a sound tactic fro someone who has been beaten so badly by Brussels.
You only have to worry about being overrung by Persians if you live in the Middle East.
In the United States we don’t have to worry about being overrun by Persians, we just have to guard against their Islamic terrorists, and their nuclear weapons.
I don’t think Americans have to worry about the Chicoms invading, either. The Chicoms would make a big mistake trying to start a fight on our home turf.
Well the Chicoms couldn’t come at you from your Southern border.
That’s already occupied territory.
(Surrendered, more accurately).
Tom,
It’s been a few years ago (when I still had a land line) …
A man called (middle east accent, can’t say for sure Persian, but for the sake of this post let’s assume he was) and he asked for Fairuza. I told him he had the wrong number.
He called back again two minutes later … again I told him he had the wrong number, and that he needed more practice dialing the phone.
When he called 20 minutes later I told him Fairuza was busy and couldn’t talk and hung up. He called back again and again I told him she was busy. The next time he called I told him Fairuza didn’t want to talk to him now, or ever again. He said he was going to come over in person to straighten this out … I said, “I’ll see you when you get here then.”
The next day he called and told me he knew what I was doing and that I should be more courteous to people that make mistakes. I said pppptttthhhh and hung up.
Now, I know I could have avoided most of the calls if I had tried a little harder, but I was definitely overrung by a Persian …. And, I don’t live in the Middle East.
Probably an Arab – the Arabs overran the Persians centuries ago and have been trying to finish the job ever since. Can’t say I’m happy about the way the Persians have been pushing back but how did we end up in the middle of a regional squabble again?
The US government preventing the oil companies from drilling wherever there was oil.
Also, the creation of the Department of Energy, like the creation of the Department of Education has been excellent at doing the opposite of what they were claimed to have been created for.
“The next day he called and told me he knew what I was doing and that I should be more courteous to people that make mistakes.”
Lol! Good story! “Overung”! Another good one!
So it *is* possible to be overrung by Persians in America!
You should have asked that guy how many times one has to be courteous before getting exasperated over a person making the same mistake over and over?
” … how many times one has to be courteous before….”
We could ask griff. Or even Biden.
Without Nuclear or negative carbon technology (carbon capture and storage),there is no “net zero emissions”only zero emissions.
No country will achieve zero emissions by 2030,2050 or any other date without obliterating its economy.
Herbert,
Obliterating it’s economy?
Surely you ment politicians !
All people everywhere would have to die first, that includes those who want to force the insanity on us.
We are truly in an era of a mental sickness. A mental illness of a Western-driven climate scam that must have the Chinese and Russian leaders in Beijing and Moscow jumping in glee.
Wicked solution. Political congruence. Carbon credits. Surely, an episode of The Outer Limits… or Twilight Fringe.
What’s next?
Only the self-appointed Global Guvment can save us from ourselves, fact!!!
Relax Joel, it’s an April 1 repost…
Note that he said “[t]that will require additional investment”. The cynic in me sees the statement as a requirement for an increased budget – just a sneaky way to get it.
Lay down your arms and surrender = zero emissions. Feel good now?
Take a knee. Beg. Good boy, girl, whatever.
Just ground the RAF.
Gonna have to have really long extension cords for those jets. They’ll be coal-powered anyway….
I know! Put windmills on the jets to generate electricity! I’ll need a grant for a feasibility test flying first class in jets across the world a few times. Needs to be first class so I can be closer to the front where the windmills will be more effective.
A prop-driven… nay, nyet, Nye, a prop-powered plane. Novel. Eat my avian carrion.
Good morning Zig Zag,
Not long ago,I was packed in the sardine section of an Airbus sipping an inferior wine and nibbling fruits and nuts, appropriately since I was returning from California which harbours large numbers of both. It occurred to me how lucky I was to be propelled by kerosene as opposed to Net Zero Wind for example.
Wipping out the old slide rule (which need not be switched off during flight) I calculated that it would take 70,000 horses or 350,000 galley slaves at max exertion to to get the Airbus off the ground. Suddenly the sardine section seemed a lot less crowded!
Cheers
Mike
The proposed new form of the RAF will have all ‘pilots’ on the ground, remotely controlling battery powered drones. Nobody will actually fly an aircraft and everybody will get medals and pats on the back for a job well done. Whatever the outcome actually is.
I think the UK should seriously consider changing it’s name to Wokistan and have done.
The woke progression: [morally] broke, functionally deficient. One step forward, two steps backward.
Cb … led by Boris whose “Green” girlfriend is leading him by the testicles.
n.n., the two steps back is accurate. I’m not so sure about the one step forward, though. I’m just not seeing it.
In light of that, I’m opening up a tool shop; top quality stone axes and flint knives. It’s a bit early, but at the current rate of negative progress our pols have us going, business should be booming in the next couple of years.
I thought about opening a rope, tar, and feathers shop, but people don’t seem inclined to use those items.
Carbon credits. Shared/shifted responsibility.
Clearly, the RAF no longer views itself as indispensable, so it must find ways to ingratiate itself to the public in order to justify its budget.
Will he agree to resign in disgrace if he isn’t 25% of the way there in five years? Will he agree to forfeit pay and pension if he fails? Will Her or His Majesty take away his sir? Wouldn’t be the first Marshal or commanding General with more mouth than sense. Also wouldn’t be the first to lose a war. Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that. Kipling works for Airmen, too:
“An’ it’s Tommy this, an’ Tommy that, an’ anything you please;
An ‘Tommy ain’t a bloomin’ fool – you bet that Tommy sees!”
I note the following quote from the Telegraph article referenced,
“.. the Defense Secretary, announced in December last year that algae, alcohol and household waste would power RAF fighter jets to cut carbon emissions”
Don’t forget to also arrange to capture the pilot’s burps and farts, to extend the airplane’s fuel range. Also, if they could put a little alcohol ‘still’ in the cockpit, you could produce even more fuel on the way, and the pilot’s consumption of some of it would help with his acceptance of the whole mad situation, as well as likely helping the burps and farts along, etc.
Pretty much lunacy. The only way you could possibly be “net zero” is to either not emit, or to purchase “indulgences” in the form of “carbon credits”. This purchase is a scam, a transfer of wealth from government to an approved “vendor”. And does nothing to decrease emissions, which is the stated goal.
I’ll believe there is an emergency when the world makes China and India reduce their global emissions. Until that time, it is all smoke, mirrors, and taxpayer subsidies.
Don’t you just love the line ” These things are going to be important to all air forces” !! WRONG… you can bet London to a brick that potential enemies will not be restricting THEIR air forces in a like manner …..
Yeah, the Chicoms are not going to be flying their jets using vegetable oil or batteries.
As Lord Dark Helmet said in Spaceballs,The Movie : “Out of order? ***k, even in the future nothing works!” Of course Lord Dark Helmet knew the frustration of masks as well when exclaimed: ‘I can’t breath in this thing.”
He also looked like a Richard.
“I am sure the public demands no such thing…”
What have the public got to do with it? We no longer live in a functional democracy.
Just as the slime-ball Peter Mandelson said a few years ago, “we live in a post-democratic world!” In other words, we don’t like democracy especially when we don’t get our way, so let’s dismantle it to be governed by a bunch of overpaid, underworked, unelected, undemocratic, unaccountable, & un-sackable bureaucrats, let’s call them EU Commissioners, I know Britain is technically “out”, but something tells me we’re still heavily influenced by the slime!!!!
I want to see a 50-ton tank that is 97% li-ion battery go up in flames.
It would block the enemy’s approach for sure.
👍👍 I admire a man who can always find the silver lining in any situation.
Not many 50 ton tanks in the RAF. They seem to prefer it that way.
Wigston “added the target would only be met if other countries and leaders in the industry were on board.”
Actually that’s a lot more sane than the current stated policies of the US and Europe. Are you sure he’s not speaking tongue-in-cheek?
I truly hope “leaders in the industry” includes the Air Force chiefs of potential enemies. Somehow I doubt it. Surely the RAF learnt some lessons from the 1930’s. Perhaps not.
Zero Carbon
Zero Covid
Zero Racism
Zero Sexism
Zero Inequality
Zero Hate Crime (of the ‘victims’ choosing)
etc…
All these ‘zero’ demands were what would have been considered, by the general public, the ravings of a fanatic suffering from a variation of an severe obsessive compulsive disorder. Now all and more are eagerly applied with a religious fervour and underpinned by the most important zero of them all:
Zero personal responsibility
As said before, too many rights without the responsibility, recipe for social disaster imho!!!
The key to the demand to reduce emissions is always the inclusion of the word ‘net’ which allow all sorts of statistical, accounting and scientific jiggery-pokery for press releases in the future that make it look like they are achieving ‘Net Zero’.
The Chinese will make short work of the new RAF ‘net-zero’ emission electric powered fighter aircraft if conflict occurs.
Back to the future
“Wurr doomed”- Private Fraser,Dad’s Army.
One of our regional airports (N.Z.) plans to be carbon neutral by 2030 – electric fleet vehicles and a bicycle hub are included in their initiatives.
I responded to our local newspaper which was published today. Headline: “Whanganui letters: Airport could take lead on climate emergency action” and their intro which followed a photo of the control tower: ” A reader suggests Whanganui Airport could close to aircraft and reduce its carbon footprint to zero”. I don’t like my chances of being offered the position of Airport Manager.
“Whanganui”? Isn’t that the wide place in the road, with an old DC3 stuck on top of the roadhouse?
Hmmm… the US Airforce and Marines are world leaders in powering bases and equipment renewably, saving money on energy costs for bases and making them more grid independent.
So all the enemy has to do is wait until the wind drops at night and he can be sure of an easy victory… great idea.
If anybody was truly saving money by using “renewable” power, there would be no need to mandate conversion.
When the order is placed for supply of solar panels, they also have to order a squadron of mobile diesel generators.
A cunning plan for base commanders would be to place the 2 orders, then quietly cancel the one for the solar panels, and hey presto – the base is reliably off the grid.
Of course we also had 12 cylinder diesel generators at every building as a backup. We weren’t idiots like some states/countries.
Putin’s nuclear powered cruise missiles do the same to bombers and fighters opps that has been tries the crews died of radiation sickness
Electric tanks for the army !!!!!
I’ll look for investments in extension cord manufacturers
In the meantime it’s time to re-read Charles MacKay’s still very relevant book-
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extraordinary_Popular_Delusions_and_the_Madness_of_Crowds
he is a politically correct BDOT bureaucrat who wants to show he has purpose like all the others
SERA club etc
Achieving 0 emission done easy :
Good luck with that one.
The French army last week made rumbling noises about the increasing wokeness of their government’s policies. Of course they were slapped down by the usual suspects but it will be interesting to see what happens when madam Le Pen gets elected as the next president.
In the meantime it would not surprise me if similar sentiments are going round in UK military circles who for the moment stay mum. There could be very interesting times ahead.
It was a bit more than a grumble about wokeness Ed.
The Generals and other top brass sent a very clear message to our cloth eared incompetent politicians.
A brief extract:
“The hour is serious, France is in peril, several mortal dangers threaten her. We who, even in retirement, remain soldiers of France, cannot, in the current circumstances, remain indifferent to the fate of our beautiful country.
Our flags are not just a piece of cloth, they symbolize the tradition, down through the ages, of those who, whatever their skin colour or faith, have served France and given their lives for it.
Our honour today lies in denouncing the disintegration that is affecting our homeland.”
Where there is a will there is a way. I calculate that a 30cm cross section bungee could be pulled back 3km and launch a radically designed paper aircraft. With a light wax finish for waterproofing and airflow it would easily be the most advanced aircraft in the air. Much cheaper than the current , soon to be obsolete, F35 , it would have almost zero radar and infra red profile rendering it invulnerable. As the Air Training Corps is now the most significant part of the RAF they would have a wonderful future pulling back the bungee to maximum extension using bicycles. Apart from exhaled CO2 it is a zero carbon airforce. Easy.
So, the RAF want to hog-tie themselves with “Treaty of Versailles” like restrictions imposed on Germany. Somehow, I don’t think gliders will perform well in a dogfight, and even if they got a shot off, the recoil would likely stall the aircraft.
Whilst blatantly impractical, this target is just one of many blatantly impractical targets launched in both military and civil enviro-loonery. The sheer stupidity of this target may actually serve to draw attention to the absurdity of net-zero in other walks of life.
For net-zero, the RAF had better make sure that the white flags are made of environmentally sourced cotton.
Perhaps it was a intended as a poorly constructed April fools joke, but publication got delayed by sitting in a committee for a month or so.
OMG – dogfights are just soooo last century. Nobody wants to do dogfights these days – drones are the fashionable and stylish air force accessory for the 21st century. sarc
This is not to denigrate the memory of the brave RAF pilots and crew.
Tim Bouverie tells of an incident during the Phoney War, on returning from a leaflet dropping mission over Germany a pilot was asked by his commanding officer why he had returned earlier than expect.
On replying that he instead of breaking open the bundles he had dropped whole bundles instead the officer retorted ‘good God man you might have killed someone!’.
Just a minute – was this article published on 1st April by any chance? Do you have April Fool’s Day in the US? I fear we have been caught! There is a real move to ‘Net Zero’ for the UK Forces however – Net Zero Forces!
Easiest way: abolish the “Royal” Navy due to lack of marine threat to zero. U?K out of the UN permanent Security Council too.
The UN is an institution long past its use by date
I think the Royal Navy are actually heading into, not only Net Zero but, Completely Zero. Electricity that is, from France and probably Europe
Usually the continental inter-connectors are bring in 6GW but Les Frogz Legz are gonna switch theirs off.
Headline #1: “France threatens to cut power to Jersey amid fishing row”
Headline #2: “UK Royal Navy ships patrolling Jersey amid fishing row with France”
Its all so Monty Python, petty and utterly childish.
I am left wondering, “Which are tastier and/or more nutritious, scampi or electrons?”
As long as they’re either both swimming in garlic butter, I don’t mind.
haha
Go on France, (Belgium and Holland too) switch the frigging inter-connectors completely off.
Half of the French one is broken down ### right now anyway. Lets see Boris’ windmills take up the slack. UK coal is doing the biz as it happens. haha
Vive La France, allez vous on, drop Boris and his mistress right in it. Please.
The ‘smelly stuff’ or La Manche, no matter to me.
Do everyone here in the UK ‘The Biggest Favour’ you could ever do, right now that is.
### Wouldn’t that just be sooooo delicious, did A Trawler break one half of the French inter-connect?
Boootiful. Just boootiful
If I smile any more than I am right now, the top half of my head may fall off!!!!
Let me see if I have this straight. Opposition to the Nordstream pipeline centres on Putin who, though never having made such a threat, might switch off the gas flow for political advantage – and Russia has been labelled a rogue state because it might use such a tactic sometime in the future. Macron has issued such a threat publicly and we say nothing? Where are the US and UN sanctions on Macron and his rogue state then? Macron should have similar sanctions to Putin for this.
RAF chief explains his muddled thinking complete with a video —
From https://www.defensenews.com/smr/energy-and-environment/2021/05/04/british-military-aircraft-must-hit-net-zero-target-by-2040-raf-head-says/
In my book Net Zero Emissions equates to Net Zero Levitation which is, I believe, a basic requirement for a viable Air Force.
Could Sir Mike Wigston please explain.?
This sort of thinking infecting our leadership is really very frightening indeed. – Not something to laugh about.
“diverting investment from equipment and platforms”
Nice thoughts! It seems that Brexit did not yet reach the UK armed forces…
“Divert investent” and then, as usual (in the last two World Wars), ask the nice and brave our friend American boys to come die in Europe to defend us and preserve our institutions.
Great!
(things like this make me ashamed of being European)
We won’t be able to assist. Our own Air Force will have to ship one plane over at a time on Greta’s sailboat.
The way things are going at the moment, Biden will send the USAF over to aid the EU against Britain. Something is definitely broken over there.
It’s the local and Mayoral etc elections today and this is a timely reminder of the order of priorities in Westminster: Parliament, Party, Self, Family, Other interests and that there isn’t anyone really worth voting for.
There is 99.99% backing for this madness in Parliament, no potential candidate at any level is going to go off piste.
OMG can this idiocy go any deeper…
Sad to say, probably yes. Woke morons have taken over the military in the same way that they’ve taken over the police.
oh they may well get to zero
zero airforce etc
because by the time they misgender recruits feed em vego tucker or bugs extra for the nonvegans, put em into nylon shoes for nice long nasty training cos leathers banned etc. cancel heating cooling n even warm showers offer then a nice battery tank or biofuel plane(when they cant get the f’d35s to fly on normal juice..bullets n bombs are not climate friendly so its back to sticks n stones chaps! n chap esses
there wont BE a military left
nylon shoes
Surely that’s a no-no being derived from oil?
Absolutely correct – the sustainable shoes of the future will be made from cardboard and paper.
May the farce be with you
Countries such as China, Russia, and NK heartily approve and applaud this. Because they too want to “save the planet”, just perhaps on a different timetable (like never).
Gliders, that’s it, gliders are the answer.
“From the article: “Is there no end to this idiocy?”
Good question!
I wouldn’t want this guy running my military or even serving in it.
Maybe there’s a Stupid virus going around that we are not aware of? Intelligence does’t seem to be a defense against constant climate change brainwashing, for many people.
UK RAF — Eagles led by Turkeys
It does sound crazy but what is more crazy is people in high places who are tasked with defending the country and carrying out the orders of the government are on board with the crazies. Or maybe no one makes that promotion to the high position without being on board with crazy.
If you rule the waves, would sea level rise not work in your favour?
You truly cannot make this kind stupid up.
An army of vegetarians using electric tanks?
Anyone looking for a nation to conquer?
When I was a kid we used to have these toy planes that were powered by twisting a rubber band attached to the propeller and then releasing it. They flew, sort of. A scaled up version might solve the RAF’s climate emergency needs. Well, if they can be serious about an electric tank…
I’m thinking medieval methods of warfare, especially trebuchets. Those are really cool. And archery, spears, swords, etc. Those are all green, right? The good ol’ days!
“We shall fight them in the air, we shall fight them on the beaches, we shall fight them on the land”….with windmills…and Tesla tanks….and CNN!
Has the brave Sir Mike Wigston figured out how shoot down an enemy fighter jet from a glider?
Speaking of “silly games”, it is in the lyrics.
Peter Gabriel – Games Without Frontiers – YouTube