CAMERON MUST STOP SABRE-RATTLING AND COME TO HIS SENSES

To think that I voted for Cameron. But I am now left doubting my sanity and it is starting to dawn on me that very few politicians have a clue about what they are doing. His threats of imposing a 'no fly zone' over Libya is starting to mirror what that former war-monger, Tony Blair did in Iraq. 

By making all of these devastating cuts to our military capabilities, how can Cameron continue with the belief that Britain is a major military power capable of enforcing our will over other nations? It is time that we kept our dirty noses out of other people's battles more especially as we no longer have the muscle to back up our threats. Perhaps Cameron is starting to believe that he has been rather hasty in cutting our military's strength and prowess? 

I doubt if any of us are enjoying the events that are unwinding in Libya and Cameron was sabre rattling when he appeared on the BBC One Show  to tell the audience that "We have got to prepare for what we might have to do if he (Gaddafi) goes on brutalising his own people. I don't think we can stand aside and let that happen". Big words from a prime minister who has already committed to sacrificing our Armed Forces by sending out redundancy notices. It appears Cameron is attempting to rally other countries to his idea of preventing the bloodshed in Libya from continuing in much the same way as Blair had done over Iraq. We only need to look at that major blunder to see where this could all be heading. It is time that we started to mind our own business and stop committing what is left of our resources by poking our noses into the affairs of others. The main issue to consider here is that if Cameron enforces a no fly zone he will effectively be declaring war on Libya.  Maybe he should concentrate his mind on the growing problems of our own country instead of thinking about committing our depleted troops to yet another potential theatre of war that we simply cannot afford.

And, if we do commit, what is he going to send? We haven't got much of an Air Force left and we could have even less if Gaddafi was to shoot down some of our remaining aircraft. We have already seen one major cock-up after Hague sent in the SAS on a mission that nobody appears to have quite understood and he can count himself lucky that we got our men back after they had been captured. The last thing Britain needs is to become embroiled in another war.

VULCAN GAINS A REPRIEVE

Aviation enthusiasts will be delighted to hear that the world’s last airworthy Avro Vulcan bomber (XH558) has received a further stay of execution after a solid response by supporters to an appeal for funding, The Vulcan to the Sky Trust reports that the success of their Winter appeal means they can now focus on developing commercial revenue streams to raise money so that keeping the aircraft flying will be less dependent on quarterly fund raising appeals.

Photo: The Chris Kennedy Collection

Only 136 of the iconic Vulcans were ever built and more than £7m has already been raised from donations to keep this amazing aircraft in the sky so that others might enjoy her awe-inspiring capabilities. But a constant flow of money is needed if this fantastic example of British military aviation history is to continue being enjoyed.

The Vulcan 558 Club was launched in May 1997 in response the public’s call to conserve the last Vulcan to be retired by the RAF.The mighty aircraft was very much a symbol of the Cold War and was one of three ‘V bombers’ designed to carry nuclear bombs to Russia had the Soviet Union launched an attack.Vulcan and the other two V bombers (Handley page Victor and Vickers Valiant) became a deterrent that probably helped prevent a 3^rd global conflict. But in 1982 the Vulcan was used in anger for the only time when 7 missions were flown from Ascension Island to bomb the Argentines after they had invaded the Falkland Islands. The missions were supported by 13 Victor air-to-air refuelling tanker aircraft on the longest-ever bombing mission until then that flew return sorties of nearly 8,000 miles (12,500km).

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