Posts by IWVC

Re: Yes Prime Minister

@BOFH in training

@Dr Paul Taylor

“Yes Minister” is responsible for the greatest changes in the relationship between politicians and the civil service. The Blair administration of 1997 wanted to change the basis of the civil service from a neutral service to the Crown to a politicised service responsible only to ministers. Blair in effect wanted the US system, whereby the incoming government brings in its own executive. It was very apparent that they had absorbed all the programmes lessons and were terrified of the potential power of the “Sir Humphries”. This was evident by the many rallies held by the incoming ministers of Government Departments for their staff, and their barbed comments about not being outdone by Sir Humphrey. I, and several hundred others, had to suffer John Prescott at the Methodist Central Hall Westminster. The civil service was/is obliged to provide unbiased advice which, in practice, meant that the negative aspects of any policy had to be fully explained. Yes, this could be used to slow down or stop policies, but Ministers had to be made aware of all issues. Obstructionism can be overcome but requires knowledge, skills and management – in Yes Minister, Hacker comes out on top more times than many remember. Blair’s failure to change the remit of the Civil Service had two main consequences. The Cabinet Office was expanded to have tentacles in all other Government departments, and was staffed with more political advisors (political advisors saturated individual departments as well). New posts such as “Chief of staff” appeared. There was an early episode of Yes Prime Minister where Sir Humphrey explains to Hacker that as Prime Minister he no longer has any power to make detailed policy as he no longer runs a department – he has to rely on others. The second change was to make performance related pay compulsory from the top down. This meant that an agreed list of things to be done by set dates had to be met in order to get an annual pay increase. The consequence of that was that you just got on with what you are told and if you realised that the policy you were implementing was faulty, you didn’t stop it because failure to complete the given task resulted in no pay rise. If the outcome was bad, so what, it wasn’t your problem as long as the set task was completed.

In my view, these are the reasons many projects have rumbled on when they should have been abandoned and terminated. Of course, the expanded Cabinet office and performance pay have been inherited, and used, by several governments of both parties since 1997.

Boris is not one to get bothered with detail, but that is no excuse for him being involved with Partygate. As a manager, he should have said something and stopped it. BUT the senior civil servant running the Cabinet Office should also have been held responsible but this individual seems to have got away scot-free.

Re: And the UK ?

@Jellied Eel

Just to add to this, according to BEIS (Dept of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy?) the ANNUAL load factors for offshore wind turbines is about 45% of rated capacity and on shore 25%. This, of course is, the energy output for a full year and varies on a day-to-day basis as anywhere between 0% and 100% of demand. Many periods of high air pressure / low wind speeds occur during winter and summer seasons, meaning demand for heating or fans / air con for cooling cannot be met by wind generated resources because there isn't any. Furthermore, the first wind generation turbines are reaching the end of life and require decommissioning - and it is not easy to recycle composite fibre reinforced blades.

Much of the EU is devoid of suitable offshore areas for turbines - and on shore are far less efficient. Rather than getting worked up about the design of plugs, it is worth asking whether the EU has plans for an EU Grid to distribute this "free low carbon energy" and include hydro schemes from Scandinavian sources.

Finally, a legal point. I'm not sure if this European Parliament declaration is in response to an EU Commission proposal. If it isn't, it has no binding status. The EU can only legislate on the basis of a proposal from the Commission, and the Parliament has no power to tell the Commission to make any specific proposal. So if the Commission doesn't want to action something, it doesn't happen. If it is minded to "do something", its proposals can be radically different to what the Parliament wanted. It's called EU law making.

Re: Petrol provides more energy per £ than mains electricity

"That's an interesting assertion: you appear to have improved charging and discharging efficiency by at least a good quarter, completely eliminated transmission losses and battery drain while stationary and the use of passive alarms etc which all drain power while the vehicle is stationary."

A common approach, many commentators quote low ICE efficiencies due to "real world conditions" but fail to apply the same constraints when they quote EV statistics.

Re: Thank you

I think that technically they have 4, all in museums. 1 at RAF Museum Cosford under restoration so not on display, and 3 at RAF Museum Hendon where one is undercover and 2 outside gradually crumbling away due to lack of care. The boats were retired into civilian hands for target towing purposes in 1986 and sea rescue taken over completely by helicopters.

Re: Is the market voting with its feet?

UK Dept of transport releases accident data regularly. Originally the "Stats 19" forms were filled in by police whenever a personal injury accident occurred and included the location of the accident. Some of the required information was reduced during the 1990s I believe - to reduce police paperwork - but now enhanced datasets are freely available which has location, type of road, junction layout etc.

https://data.gov.uk/dataset/cb7ae6f0-4be6-4935-9277-47e5ce24a11f/road-safety-data

Re: Not a translator

I don’t speak any other language but have been a user of simultaneous translations for many happy hours in meetings of the EU on vehicle construction standards. Up to 6 or more languages could be used in any meeting, so there were a lot of translators waiting for say French to English to then translate from the English to Spanish or whatever. If you have had the benefit of using translation you will know that if you are listening to the speaker’s language all you get is his microphone connected directly to your own headphones. However, one of the industry reps suddenly realised that the voice in his headphones wasn’t his and there was a delay before whatever he said was repeated by someone else. It turned out that his Geordie accent was so strong that the translators had asked for an English translation of his accent before they could translate into their allotted languages. (I was very nervous about the strength of my Welsh accent after that)

On another occasion a French delegate who had the habit of speeding up his speech when exited managed to outrun the translation and all we got was “sorry we can’t keep up and be sure of translating properly”

Lastly (someone else has mentioned this) we had a German translation that had very long pauses that were eventually broken by the translator saying “...just waiting for the verb, just waiting for the verb”

Re: Baroness Harding

If we had still been in the EU she would have been "promoted" to be one of the UK supplied Commissioners.

Re: And the EU still can't understand why the UK left.

If you can recall far enough back, the whole BREXIT thing started with David Cameron saying he could get the EU to change and not be, for example, "bureaucratic, indecisive a*seholes" but was firmly (and not unexpectedly) told where to get off. He thought that the threat of UK withdrawal would be enough to swing the argument in his favour and was extremely naive to think that it would. The EU on its part never believed that a referendum in the UK would vote for out which showed how remote from public opinion the leaders were - not just in the UK as other political dissatisfaction was building elsewhere - and refused to change. (It became apparent that David Cameron didn't expect a leave result either but having set the ball rolling promptly buggered off and washed his hands of the result).

Re: 20 year old tech...

@graham Dawson

The UK does in fact (or at least did while I was working) have a significant input to UN ECE technical groups, chairing several of them involved with vehicles standards. The EU usually adopted the UN-ECE technical standards, although EU legal provisions and quality control standards had to be incorporated in the final texts. The EU Commission has sole rights to initiate a regulation and has control of developments up to adoption. The EU Council of Ministers or EU Parliament can REQUEST the Commission to make changes but not compel them to. Industry groups can be represented at early Commission working groups while they draft their proposals but have no voting power. However, many of the directives refer to CEN standards which are largely formulated by industry technical working groups. I don't know if the UK (Through BSI) will remain within the CEN system post BREXIT.

Whre does the Hydrogen come from?

Hydrogen fuel cells are great items and can work well in transport environments. But where do we get the hydrogen from? Chemical and cracking processes are messy and energy intensive (therefore negating one of the reasons to go hydrogen in the first place). Electrolysis seems promising but those who propose using “spare” wind and tidal generated power need to look at the realities of the present UK generation capacity. Basically there isn’t any, as most of our electricity is provided from gas powered equipment. GB nuclear provides a steady 6GW or so – about 15% of consumption. Wind varies between about 6 and 50% depending on the weather. 6% is NOT unusual and is common when high pressure sits over the UK which can be in both hot and cold seasons. Everyone claims wind power is sufficient to keep the UK going but most of the time we rely on gas and even coal as substantial generation sources. https://gridwatch.co.uk/ gives a comprehensive report on sources. We regularly import about 6% from France – presumably from their nuclear resources. The Green supporters revile nuclear sources and simultaneously want gas powered domestic heating and cooking converted to electricity (as well as all transport, including cars, buses and lorries). No one ever checks on the reality of the situation, and our incompetent politicians go along with the fantasies in the pursuit of votes. If we want electric transport then build nuclear stations everywhere and run overhead-cables for rail and in towns for trams. Just don’t put one in N London where I live…..

Re: Obviously not GPS jamming

The problem was that the Vulcan's radar emissions could be tracked long before the aircraft itself (which was flying at low level) so the search radar was off. I met one of the navigators that flew on Black Buck missions. They were briefed to switch radar on when passing over the task force fleet to ID themselves, the logic being that the task force were expecting them and the direction of approach would rule out Argentine aircraft. But as the Vulcan approached their warning systems lit up with numerous fire control radars from the fleet and as the navy had a long-established reputation from WW2 to shoot first and ask afterwards, the crew turned their own radar off and hoped they didn't collide with the superstructure of a ship. They had to make landfall at a precise location, hence the need for INS kit as they could only use their own radar NBC system for the actual bomb run.

Later BB mission had Vulcan armed with Shrike (?) missiles to knock out Argentine defence radars and lurked around off the Falklands wanting to be painted by them as Shrike homed in on their emissions.

Re: Pilots carrying comprising material

I bow to your greater knowledge but have always been under the impression that pilots would be given target or intercept details but not told that this has been found from intercepts of enemy communications. That would not stop the enemy concluding that the only way that that position could be found was if their communications had been intercepted and decoded. During WW2 great effort was taken to ensure that such conclusions could not be drawn and I understand that often photo reconnaissance flights were made over targets identified through ULTRA so that the enemy thought the target had been discovered by other means. One of the biggest security problems was the US Navy’s indiscriminate use of ULTRA to intercept refuelling U boats and the high risk that the Germans would conclude (rightly) that the large number of appearances of US forces at such remote points was more than coincidence.

On the beer front many years ago I discovered a small cafe bar in Brussels called “The Beer Circus” which served food cooked with some of the hundred or so local beers it stocked (and there are a lot of very good beers in Belgium) including a sort of chocolate mousse made with Trappist beer. I think is was delicious but have very hazy memories of the place……..

Re: US trade Deal

Yes a point many anti US standards commentators have missed. We may have to accept the stuff but WE DON'T HAVE TO ACTUALLY BUY IT or eat it. Market forces etc.

Re: Missing the point?

Well said I'm fed up of having to open a account to buy one thing, or get info from a web site / forum or whatever each time having to give email (for the inevitable log in code check) and a password, mothers name inside leg measurement etc etc

Re: Can't get better than a Kwik-Fit fitter.

Kwick fit always reminds me of Auntie Wainwrights shop in last of the summer wine. The uninitiated go in for a tyre replacement and come out with 5 new tyres, new discs and pads, a new exhaust and windscreen wipers. Apart from the initial tyre none of the other bits really needed but the fitters must make more on commission than hourly rate. I don't go there normally but a couple of years ago I was forced to get a replacement battery from there and as things were quiet they did a "safety check" (without asking) and informed me my oil level was dangerously low and wanted to put 2 litres in. I then checked the oil level in front of the "Kwik-Fit fitter" using the dipstick which showed it was perfectly OK. Apart from the cost of 2 litres of oil, overfilling to that extent would have damaged the engine. Even if they had a paper system to cover IT failure I wouldn't have much confidence in them working out the price properly

Re: To be human.

Not so. If you have ever read Hansard, the official publication of Parliamentary business, every "Oh" "erm" "like", "But" etc. is faithfully recorded. In the days before Hansard was published electronically (mid 1980s) I was part of a group of Department of Transport officials being interrogated by a House of Lords Scrutiny Committee. As we were getting up to leave at the end of the session one of their Lordships fired a late question that was directed to me. I wasn't expecting it and my response of "..er um, I think Belgium does it" was duly recorded in the Parliamentary archives.

From what I've read, RR suffered from the disease that affects many companies making profits ( and nationalised / Government run entities who don't make profits...) of the ability to afford to enlarge "middle management" for various reasons (aka Empire building by senior managers). Getting rid of these layers will reduce immediate costs but more importantly allow greater financial resource to the technical problem solvers and a much simpler chain of command between the operators and designers.

Re: News to us in the U.S.

An MoD spokesman told The Register: "The F-35 programme remains on track, on time, within costs"

presumably that is the same Government definition of "on time" etc. used to describe the rail franchising system....?

Re: Marine Craft Section

The MCS was disbanded in 1986 I believe.

Re: Didn't see that coming

OK to add another angle to the debate. AI systems will struggle to identify every pedestrian or cyclist likely to do something spontaneously that could cause an accident. In the UK, although not official policy, the driver of a vehicle is assumed to be the person responsible for an accident until proved otherwise. In considering the ability of AI driven vehicles to be safe, perhaps those in government promoting self driving vehicles should consider promoting road safety education for kids more (the old "Tufty Club" and "Green Cross Man" of the 60s and 70s have never been fully replaced) and in particular rethink about age limits and training for cyclists before being allowed out on roads. Autonomous driving or not that should help reduce accidents anyway.

CASA 2.111 engines

We have a static running Merlin at the RAF Museum occasionally. The owner told me that it was originally built in WW2 for a Lancaster or Halifax, post war was fitted in a Hastings transport (derived from Halifax) and was then rebuilt as a Merlin 500 series fitted in a CASA 2.111. Must have been a rare engine to have powered types of the principal bombers of WW2 from both sides. :-)

Re: Pedant here....

2 further points.

1) A Directive is binding on all Member States but has to be implemented by national law. So (before Brexit is completed at least) companies who comply with the Directive but not the stricter UK interpretation could appeal to the EU Courts?

2) Each directive is published in all the 24 official languages of the EU so your interpretation of the phrase needs to be checked in the other 23.....

(not a joke, many years ago I was dealing with directives on vehicle standards and one had different calculations of a critical dimension in the English, French and German translations - they were all different. The Commission's response to my unofficial query was that all languages are equal in the legal sense so you could approve to whichever language text suited you! A correction was later issued.)

Re: Benefits - *cough* 1972 *cough*

It's taken a while but I've found a copy of the panorama debate. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_zBFh6bpcMo It wasn't 1972 as I originally thought but 1975 when there was a referendum on whether to stay in. I'm not a fan of either politician but the arguments seemed very much the same as the Brexit debate. And even then the political union and sovereignty arguments were brushed under the carpet. Jenkins states about 10 minutes in that the EU Commission were "servants of the council of ministers" This is clearly untrue (although Jenkins probably wanted to believe it) and in the 1990s when I was involved in the agreement of a Directive I was told by staff of our Permanent Representative to the EU that the Council could only REQUEST the Commission to do something (i.e. in that case to bring forward further proposals to resolve deficiencies in the agreement on the table) it had no power to INSTRUCT the Commission to do anything. That in my understanding means that the Commission has the upper hand and is definitely NOT a servant. maybe Jenkins was naive - but he did rise to be head of the Commission from 1977 to 81..... and as such had more power than any of the then 9 member state's Parliaments. Wondered if he remembered the Panorama debate then?

Re: Irrational

Well a bit too old to be relevant now but Sharkey Ward's book Sea Harrier over the Falklands has some interesting accounts of operating in bad North sea conditions when the US carriers couldn't launch (Chapter 1) and some exercises with the US using F5s and F15s where they used the Harrier's characteristics to their advantage (Chapter 6). He reckoned you could pull a 2G "stop" at 400 knot by vectoring and used it against F5s.

Having said that he isn't exactly reserved and unbiased in describing the performance of the Sea Harrier :-)

Re: Right to remain silent

So that included the really bad offences of parking and using a bus lane? Both of which are treated in the same way - the registered keeper of the vehicle is fined unless he/she can prove someone else was in charge at the time??

Re: Not really the best use case....

A bit of a digression off the main topic but I would find an empty space app very useful in many of the car parks which charge (via ANPR identification) from the moment you pass the entry barrier rather than from when you actually park and buy a ticket. At Heathrow last week ended up overstaying the 1st half hour rate by about 5 minutes and it cost me an additional £4 or so.... The 5 minutes being roughly the same time as it took to find an empty space in the short term car park from entering the place.