thetrees

One of my recommendations would be Aer Lingus, but as you are in Tralee it wouldn't count. National airlines are only cheap for other countries' citizens! Years ago the cheapest way to NY was Bangladesh Biman from Brussels. As Biman start Dacca-BHX-JFK this summer, the potential is there again for cheap deals.

If you like food I am currently stuck in Rodney Bay, St.Lucia, for a couple of nights. Lots of very nice eateries that are not outrageously priced. Certainly somewhere that I could come to for a two week beach chill, and enough to see on the interior of the island for a couple of day's change. I believe that Virgin offer some reasonable packages.

Stealing a plane and flying it to somewhere out of the way where it could go unseen is not unthinkable. 'Stealing' two hundred and odd people is another matter, unless said people were just 'disposed of' Certainly if it was a hostage situation we would be aware by now.

Right-wing thinking in a nutshell. Hardly, but nice try. The 'holier than thou' brigade has an addition!

I am sorry guys but left thinkers jumping on this one is, quite frankly, laughable. When Labour regained power after years away, their number one priority, above anything else that you would expect a normal government to prioritise, was to exact their class war "revenge" by banning fox hunting. For this they spent years and millions in the process. Now, several years into a so-called Tory government, those with influence on such things are lobbying to bring it back, hardly surprising. Whether fox hunting is banned or legalised, I don't care, as it has no bearing upon my life. There are certainly other injustices, some of which directly affect me, that this government could do with sorting out first. But for left thinkers to use any debate about fox hunting as a stick to beat any government with reeks of hypocrisy.

In fairness Ian, it is the 'holier than thou' Socialists who started it! Mind you, as a more balanced Socialist I invite you to end it. Just pushing back now, so I am gone for 9 hours at least....,,,,or maybe days longer;)

Or, in simple summary, Margaret Thatcher achieved the necessary power to follow her convictions and 'ruin people's lives' Mr Benn was denied the opportunity to exact his policies and 'ruin people's lives' because he failed in his attempts to achieve high office.

Must have had a French pilot This was the flight where lots of passengers drowned as they inflated their life jackets inside the plane and got trapped inside as it filled up , wasn't it ? Yep, that's the one. Always listen to the safety briefing, it might save your life!

Tempest, Cyclops and Rockers me. And of course Reddington's 'happy hour'

Landing an aircraft with wing mounted engines on water from a glide, so presumably out of fuel, would likely result in a crash situation similar to the Ethiopian incident in the Comores a few years ago. The Hudson landing of a similarly configured aircraft was nothing short of miraculous. Wasn't the Ethiopian plane landed by hijackers and Hudson by a trained pilot though ? It is pointing more towards someone taking control of the plane though .... And this someone seems to know exactly what they were doing i.e transponder turned off , following waypoints etc The Ethiopian plane was hijacked, but it was the crew who attempted and made the landing.

Viability may have had something to do with that decision.

Landing an aircraft with wing mounted engines on water from a glide, so presumably out of fuel, would likely result in a crash situation similar to the Ethiopian incident in the Comores a few years ago. The Hudson landing of a similarly configured aircraft was nothing short of miraculous.

Funding has been used unwisely for the entire time that Randy Lerner has been at the club, which stretches to getting on for 8 years now. But you are trotting out stats that are related to what has been happening on the pitch. And what happens on the pitch is the responsibly of the manager, who is Paul Lambert You don't think what happens on the pitch is related to the owner? I fully agree about Lambert but the way this club has been run by Lerner has had a serious impact on the pitch. With the backing afforded to Lambert versus the football that we have had to put up with, and the disgraceful home record no, I don't think that it is related to the owner, save for the fact that he hasn't sacked the manager. Whatever is wrong with the general running of the club, we can all debate. There is no debate about the abysmal performance of the team, and the abysmal performance of the team manager.

You are certainly in the right thread for people living in a fantasy world, but that isn't Lambert related. For the constant stats being droned out on here as some kind of stick to beat the owner with, the problem with the team performance is down to the manager. Nothing to do with patience, nothing to do with a lack of understanding, and nothing to do with expectation. The manager is shit. He has proven that with his transfer policy, and he has proven that with the absolute rubbish that has been served up to us at Villa Park this season. If he isn't the problem for poor use of funds in the transfer market and the diabolical performances on the pitch, I would be interested to know who is.

Funding has been used unwisely for the entire time that Randy Lerner has been at the club, which stretches to getting on for 8 years now. But you are trotting out stats that are related to what has been happening on the pitch. And what happens on the pitch is the responsibly of the manager, who is Paul Lambert

For all the stats being trotted out, the problem is Lambert. He has had funding and used it unwisely, doubling up in some positions and leaving the midfield desperately week. There may, or may not, be a lot wrong with the overall management of the business, but our poor performances on the pitch and therefore points tally is down to the guy managing the football side.

I was in an Air France crash once. But that was the bus taking us from the terminal to the aircraft, which hit a wall!

Yes, sort of, but why? Malaysia is a fellow Islamic country. The aircraft was en route to Beijing, with a high proportion of Chinese nationals on board. Iran enjoys very good relations with China Fuel wise, more than likely enough to reach Tehran. Of course, to hijack an aircraft you need access to the flight deck, which isn't easy.

Not necessarily. It depends upon accessibility and price of fuel. If fuel is cheaper at the starting point, it is not uncommon for an aircraft to cover a round trip on one tank, so to speak. Of course it has to be cheaper taking into account the burn for the extra weight.

Ah the old Thatcher destroyed the Soviet Union myth And I thought it was Reagan. The myth, that is.

Clearly you weren't around in the 70s. Radicals do not make 'fine Prime Ministers', and this country would have been a bigger mess than under the moderate James Callaghan. The Soviet Union would probably still be in existence as well! i think you give benn far too much credit if you think he could have changed world events to that extent. Then again after seeing what the 'freeing' of russia has created now maybe the old CCCP was something that could have stayed around ;-) Amen to that!

AFAIK Dennis Skinner is still alive ... A product of televised Parliament but, without that, most of the country would never have heard of him. Agreed that in him breathes a few more gasps though

Clearly you weren't around in the 70s. Radicals do not make 'fine Prime Ministers', and this country would have been a bigger mess than under the moderate James Callaghan. The Soviet Union would probably still be in existence as well!

Along with Enoch Powell, the most iconic politician of the 60s and 70s. Like Powell, he was way too radical, but held strong to his convictions, which I admired. He had a good innings and his passing marks the last breath of radical socialism in the UK, unless George Galloway is re-adopted.

I'm not being funny, but other than farmers, (and, presumably the badgers), who cares? How does that rank on the scale of the country's immediate problems? I think that you will find that to certain elements of our society badgers and foxes are a hell of a lot more important than managing the economy. You mean tories? They seem to think removing the ban on Fox hunting should be a priority. To be fair i hadn't heard of that. I just remember that this seemed to be the only policy of the first 5 years of Labour government, a petty thing that the majority of the country couldn't give a shit about. All it was about was a few chips on their shoulder socialists trying to get one over on a few chinless wonders. Irrelevant then and irrelevant now.