pap

It appears to be the team from Malaysian Airlines. They may be just trying to shift the blame in a tense situation. At this stage it's almost inconceivable that they would not have a representative of the government around though.

You're not as suspicious as me, Lord D. There has been an ongoing effort to discredit UKIP and/or Farage for some time. I'm not surprised at all. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/10725571/Verdict-who-won-in-the-Clegg-v-Farage-debate.html It'd be fine if papers just reported the news; for me, they're too often involved in making it. There was a recent case where a UKIP bigwig was pulled on something he said in 2006 about Muslims, just a year after the 7/7 bombings. He repeated his view, presumably not wanting to be labelled a hypocrite and hey presto - a "fresh" UKIP story (much like the resurrected Harman story recently). Cameron thought we should have a referendum back in his cycling days (remember that twát?). The public had to demand one through a petition, and he very publicly chickened out on the issue, despite a broad base of support among its backbenchers. Clegg called for a referendum too. Miliband has already ruled one out. Someone doesn't want us leaving the EU. UKIP is the only party that will credibly provide a referendum and Farage is their most credible politician. I'd expect both party and man to be the subject of negative headlines until after the general election.

Would take Cunard if they were up for it. Long history with the city.

Interesting. http://www.straitstimes.com/the-big-story/missing-mas-plane/story/malaysia-says-theres-sealed-evidence-mh370-cannot-be-made-publ Sealed? Why?

Civil service doesn't pay enough for technicians. I worked for Ordnance Survey for two years, first as a sandwich student and then as a contractor. During the sandwich student stint, I saw some very talented programmers leave the org. One had solved a particularly thorny issue. His closing comment was that he couldn't believe that he did it for the money. When I came back as a contractor, the place was awash with them, because guess what? Technical organisations still need to pay technical people, even if they pretend they can get away with paying £14K a year in 1997. Would have been much cheaper in the long term to pay decent money to retain their brains.

Doing a little bit of fact-checking on some of the points. I may have interpreted this incorrectly, but Clegg looks to be demonstrably lying when he says (of Farage's remarks about Andrew Symeou):- "This is fantasy. This is fantasy. This is complete fantasy". According to this, Farage was generally correct. http://www.fairtrials.org/press/after-a-four-year-ordeal-andrew-symeou-is-cleared-by-greek-courts/ Think the only point of dispute is the length of time Symeou spent in a Greek nick. Just under a year, as opposed to over a year. That said, the ordeal lasted four years start to finish.

Definitely got a face for radio, though.

They're all neo-liberals, all slaves to central banking and apart from Farage, all signed up for this European super-state that is being created by stealth. Clegg was banging on about a referendum if there is any further change to sovereignty. The framework is already in place and the damage has already been done.

One of the reasons I didn't take law as a youngster. As an adult, I recognise that running the world for a profit motive puts many people in the same position regardless. If you work for a firm that is competing with another and drives it out of business, you've got a little human misery right there, especially when there aren't many jobs going around. I'd have no problem taking law now (apart from the fact I'm ancient )

That's the lie Labour politicians tell themselves to get off to sleep each night. The assumption that only right wingers want a referendum or immigration control is a false one. Gillian Duffy is proof enough of that.

Some bullet points on this Beeb article. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-22396690

Farage had the better of it. Boiled down, Clegg was using the politics of fear in the voice of hope. Spoke about Nissan's 7K jobs, but skipped over the Southampton Ford closure. Came across as a simpering globalist lapdog.

Sent this from contact in Maldives. http://www.haveeru.com.mv/news/54178

I disagree. I think the massive gaps in logic would destroy the Borg hive-mind. Earth would use Pompey people as a bio-weapon in a last ditch, but ultimately successful effort to stop the Borg's seemingly relentless advance. Portsea Island is utile.

You lot have got nothing to worry about according to this video. They talk about adding your biological and technological distinctiveness to their own. Got much of that down there?

Selling the benefits of membership the Sicilian way.

Eek!

"An international team of astronomers, led by Felipe Braga-Ribas (Observatório Nacional/MCTI, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil), has used telescopes at seven locations in South America, including the 1.54-metre Danish and TRAPPIST telescopes at ESO’s La Silla Observatory in Chile, to make a surprise discovery in the outer Solar System. This unexpected result raises several unanswered questions and is expected to provoke much debate. A press conference will be held in Brazil to present the new results and allow opportunities for questions. The conference will be held on 26 March 2014 at 14:30 local time (BRT) and will take place in Portuguese with a summary in English." From the European Southern Observatory:- http://www.eso.org/public/announcements/ann14021/ Intriguing, as Spock might say.

You would win your money now. Already seen that put forward in advance.

My interest in this theory will end the moment that the definitive evidence is found which supports the Inmarsat findings. The best validation of those is finding the wreckage.

I'm interested in a discussion of possible outcomes; landed is one such outcome. It seems fanciful but we've had others on the thread suggest that the plane was shot down, which requires some degree of complicity from a nation state. If "landed" is an option, I think it's reasonable to ask where. The pilots can speak better to this, but I heard on a podcast that there were something like 500 feasible landing locations for a 777 within range.

That's not really an accurate assessment of my position. However, since you mentioned it, we very publicly colluded with the US over Iraq and got our pants pulled down by the media. If both nations have demonstrably colluded in the past, it's unreasonable to rule it out again. I'm not convinced of anything here. I think the suggestion that the pilot was attempting to exert political pressure is a good one too.

It's a good question. One explanation is that there was something of high value on the plane that isn't currently documented. It's already been suggested that the plane could be re-purposed as a missile, with the Israelis on high alert. Again, just speculation, but if that were to occur and Tehran was implicated, it not only opens the door for more Middle Eastern adventures, but it would also drive a wedge between Iran and one of its patrons.

I'm enjoying the story well enough but bought it for the gameplay. Think 8/10 is about right. It's a gorgeous looking game. It's structurally very similar to the previous two, but has got a lighter tone. I don't think that'll worry any PS4 owner. If the exclusives are good enough, then many will just buy an XBox One. In the meantime, they've got the benefit the vast majority of multi-plat titles performing better on their machines. I have to confess that I'm quite intrigued by a few of the exclusives. Fable Legends will be key for me. Last one dropped quality a little, and Molyneux is no longer heading up Lionhead, so we'll see.

It's probably putting 2 + 2 together and getting 5, and you're right, it is nuts. May I gently remind sir that we live in a f**king crazy world? Just a few months ago, the US was petitioning to get involved in Syria to assist our "al Qaeda allies". That's nuts. The crisis in Ukraine is nuts. The US and UK are implicitly backing far right parties in the Ukraine, which should be utterly f**king hat-stand to supposedly moderate democracies, yet we're doing it anyway. My point is that insanity doesn't seem to be any bar to implementation. I have no idea of the Chinese's monitoring capabilities over Diego Garcia, or how frequent they are. Logic would suggest that you are correct, but the reality is that neither of us know jack sh!t apart from what we're assuming. Given the unfolding crisis at the time, those resources may have been directed elsewhere. I completely agree that the Chinese would react very badly if they found out another nation state was complicit in the disappearance of MH370, but at the same time, this is a plane that disappeared off the radar and has eluded the world ever since. Some kind of resolution is required for a reaction, or in other words, it only matters if the prospective perpetrator is caught. Just speculating here.