Posts Tagged ‘Ministry of Defense’
Defence cutbacks leave the UK undefended against invasion by sea
Threat as real as most MOD scenarios
The Navy normally provides a minimum coverage of a frigate or destroyer fulfilling the role of Fleet Ready Escort (FRE) in order to be able to respond quickly to a potential threat at home or abroad. However, slashed Defence budgets and the war in Libya has meant there hasn’t been a vessel available since the start of October.
The last ship to fill the role…was HMS Portland but that left for war games off the coast of Scotland in October, and it is now having a rest period in Plymouth on the south coast.
Former First Sea Lord Admiral Lord Alan West said: “…It’s a big problem. If we haven’t got a ship ready to do this role then it’s worrying. It’s a very unsatisfactory position to be in…”
Critics warned the cuts would leave the navy overstretched. Since February nine warships have been deployed to Libya, leaving none left to be on hand in the UK…
Lord West added: “What it shows is that the number of frigates and destroyers we’ve got now is insufficient. We need more ships as a matter of urgency.”
I’m certain my friends in the UK are trembling in their boots.
Hopefully, no one will notify the Duchy of Grand Fenwick of this opportunity for invasion.
Cancer fears keep scientists from toxic beach – open to the public
Ministry of Defence (MoD) scientists have refused to analyse radioactive contamination from Dalgety Bay in Fife because of the risk it could give them cancer…
The MoD has been resisting demands to pay for a clean-up of the pollution from old military planes for the last 20 years. It has persistently played down the possible health effects for members of the public…
Yesterday, the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) found another 33 particles of radioactive pollution on the foreshore at Dalgety Bay, a few metres from a public footpath. One of them was small enough to be swallowed by a child, and was sufficiently radioactive to be a “cause for concern”, according to Sepa.
Last weekend, SEPA dug up a lump of radioactive metal near the footpath that was 10 times more radioactive that anything found before, and a serious hazard. As a result, a section of the foreshore has been cordoned off by Fife Council, and warning signs erected.
Since September, SEPA has found and removed more than 100 radioactive particles from near the footpath and from around the slipway of a popular local yachting club. That brings the total number found on the foreshore since 1990 to more than 1800.
Dalgety Bay was the site of the old Donibristle military airfield, where a large number of aircraft were dismantled after the end of the second world war. The dials in the planes were painted with luminous, radioactive radium so they could be read at night. The dials were incinerated and the resulting clinker dumped as landfill to help reclaim part of the headland on the bay. Radioactive contamination in the area was discovered by accident in 1990…
The MoD’s fear of working with the contamination has been uncovered by the minutes of a meeting in Edinburgh of the Dalgety Bay Risk Assessment Group in March 2009…
“It was unbelievable,” said Paul Dale yesterday. “They were saying that it would be hazardous for scientists, but not for children on the beach…”
The MoD’s refusal to monitor the pollution meant that SEPA had to conduct its own surveys, resulting in the recent finds. Sepa’s scientists will return to the foreshore today, and later this week, to check for more contamination.
Almost 20 years after discovery of radioactive contamination at the beach, the Ministry of Defense is still trying to stonewall responsibility, public concerns and avoid spending a penny on legitimate concerns for public safety.
Seems perfectly reasonable to me. After all, I live downhill from the National Laboratories at Los Alamos. This is standard behavior from the designers and manufacturers of death and destruction.
Britain releases new UFO files
Which is the real UFO?
Reports of “flying Toblerones” and objects travelling at 1,100 mph across the Scottish sky have been released by the Ministry of Defence.
The files detail how unidentified objects have been witnessed flying over a range of locations across Scotland.
The Scottish accounts are among the thousands of reports made of close encounters with UFOs across the UK which have been released in a joint project between the MoD and the National Archives.
I think flying chocolate bars is a terrific idea.
