Ash from Iceland’s Grimsvötn volcano could affect Heathrow by the end of the weekThis article titled “Ash cloud moves towards UK airspace” was written by Dan Milmo and Adam Gabbatt, for guardian.co.uk on Monday 23rd May 2011 10.04 UTCAirlines and airports have been warned to expect ash from an erupting Icelandic volcano to arrive in UK airspace by Tuesday, with the possibility that it could affect Heathrow airport by the end of the week.The safety watchdog for British airlines and airports, the Civil Aviation Authority, said today that particles from the Grimsvötn volcano could reach Scotland by midnight tonight and western England by Thursday or Friday, depending on wind direction.If airspace in western England, Ireland and the Atlantic is affected by the smoke plume transatlantic flights in and out of Heathrow could suffer delays later this week as planes are diverted around the most dense parts of the cloud.However, the Civil Aviation Authority said it was confident that a new Europe-wide safety regime introduced after the Eyjafjallajökull eruption last year would reduce disruption significantly and avoid the continental shutdown that stranded millions. Under the new operating procedures, it is understood that the effect of last year’s plume on commercial routes would have been 75% smaller.Nonetheless, some disruption is expected as airplanes divert around the heaviest parts of the cloud. According to the latest forecasts, Inverness and Aberdeen are the most likely airports to suffer disruption tomorrow, although the most accurate estimates can only predict six hours ahead.“Our number one priority is to ensure the safety of people both on board aircraft and on the ground. We can’t rule out disruption, but the new arrangements that have been put in place since last year’s ash cloud mean the aviation sector is better prepared and will help to reduce any disruption in the event that volcanic ash affects UK airspace,” said Andrew Haines, CAA chief executive.Under previous guidelines, aircraft were summarily grounded if there was any volcanic ash in the air. Now, airlines can fly through ash plumes if they can demonstrate that their fleets can handle medium or high-level densities of ash.The Met Office’s volcanic ash advisory centre will identify the density and location of the cloud, aided by satellite images, weather balloons and a radar specially installed for monitoring purposes in Iceland last year. Once those zones are relayed to airlines, they will need to prove that they can fly through them by producing “safety cases” that will include information from aircraft and engine manufacturers on the airline’s tolerance to volcanic ash.A CAA spokesman said all major UK airlines already had safety preparations for medium-density ash clouds.“We are in a much better position than last time,” he said. “Safety will still be paramount but we will be able to drastically reduce disruption compared to last time, provided there is not a huge amount of high-density ash.” The spokesman said a similar level of ash to the Eyjafjallajökull incident would not result in a mass-grounding. “It will be a different picture.” However, jets will have to divert around high-density clouds, causing delays on some routes, because no UK airline has submitted a safety case for flying through heavy ash plumes.BAA, the owner of Heathrow, Stansted, Edinburgh, Glasgow and Aberdeen airports, has convened a crisis support team to prepare for a reduction in flights, as airlines and airports await a further briefing from Eurocontrol and the UK air traffic controller, Nats. “We are working closely with the CAA and Nats in preparing contingency plans if ash enters UK airspace,” it said.Under the new ash guidelines, cloud densities are split into three levels: low, medium and high. Once the Met Office assigns a particular density of ash to a section of airspace, airlines must prove they have the safety case to fly through it. A low density cloud is 2g of ash per 10 cubic metres of air, with medium being 2g to 4g of ash per 10 cubic metres. Anything above 4g is deemed high density.The Grimsvötn volcano began erupting on Sunday, causing flights to be cancelled at Iceland’s main Keflavik airport after it sent a plume of ash, smoke and steam 12 miles into the air. Experts have said the eruption was unlikely to have the dramatic impact that the Eyjafjallajökull volcano had in April 2010.“At the moment if the volcano continues to erupt to the same level it has been, and is now, the UK could be at risk of seeing volcanic ash later this week,” said Helen Chivers, a Met Office spokeswoman. “Quite when and how much we can’t really define at the moment.”She said the weather situation was likely to be different from last year, with the wind direction set to change continuously. She added: “If it moves in the way that we’re currently looking, with the eruption continuing the way it is, then if the UK is at risk later this week, then France and Spain could be as well.”While the ash has grounded aircraft in Iceland, it is not anticipated that it will have a similar impact in the rest of Europe.Dr Dave McGarvie, volcanologist at the Open University, said the amount of ash reaching the UK was “likely to be less than in the 2010 Eyjafjallajökull eruption”, and the last two times Grimsvötn erupted it had not affected UK air travel.“In addition, the experience gained from the 2010 eruption, especially by the Met Office, the airline industry, and the engine manufacturers, should mean less disruption to travellers,” he said.The eruption of the Eyjafjallajökull volcano in south-east Iceland in April 2010 caused the worst disruption to international air travel since 9/11. Flights across Europe were cancelled for six days, stranding tens of thousands of people, and the eruption was estimated to have cost airlines £130m a day.Eurocontrol said in a statement: “There is currently no impact on European or transatlantic flights and the situation is expected to remain so for the next 24 hours. Aircraft operators are constantly being kept informed of the evolving situation.” guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010Published via the Guardian News Feed plugin for WordPress.Thanks for subscribing to Andy Roberts blogAsh cloud moves towards UK airspaceRelated posts:How to pronounce EyjafjallajoekullAsh Grounds Planes, Rest Of World Cut OffTag Cloud
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Ash cloud moves towards UK airspace
http://distributedresearch.net/blog/2011/05/23/ash-cloud-moves-towards-uk-airspace
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May 23 2011, 4:09pm | Comments »
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Never has London’s atmosphere as a rich city-state felt so extreme
Geographically, never mind socially, we are not all in this together. Life in London feels different to anywhere outside. By London, though, we are only talking about a small area of central, west and north london. Out in the banlieu, you might as well be in Bradford.
This article titled “Never has London’s atmosphere as a rich city-state felt so extreme” was written by Ian Jack, for The Guardian on Saturday 16th April 2011 07.30 UTC In Bradford on a winter’s night 25 years ago, I stood in front of an estate agent’s window and made a calculation. For the price of our terrace house in north London – two up and two down and a bit of garden at the back – I could buy 10 similar houses in Bradford. This month I read that Burnley has the lowest property prices in England, and made another calculation. For the price of our London house I could buy 40 houses in Burnley that were averagely cheap and 80 of the very cheapest. This doesn’t mean that the differential in house prices between London and northern England has grown by more than 400% since 1986. I live in a bigger house now, and Burnley isn’t Bradford. But the gap is certainly widening: according to Halifax figures, houses in Newcastle-on-Tyne cost on average 28.8% less than they did in 2007, while in Islington they’ve risen 9.7% in the past year after changing very little – up or down – in the previous two. I look at pictures of the cheap houses in Burnley. They’re Victorian terraces. Their doors open straight on to the street, but they look solidly built from Pennine stone, no frills, but handsome. I imagine workers came home to them from cotton mills. Our house is certainly more imposing, three floors rather than two, with bow windows and ornamental red brick. But it has shallow foundations in London clay, so whether it’s sturdier is doubtful. I imagine someone who earned money in a suit, a senior clerk or a shopkeeper, first moved in when the terrace was completed in 1890. Without substantial inherited wealth, not even two-income families in the modern equivalent of those jobs could move in now. Newspapers sometimes write that the coalition cabinet contains “18 millionaires” as though it were a peculiar outrage, but everybody who’s paid off their mortgage in my street is a millionaire, if property is counted among their assets. And I stress that this is an ordinary street; until 30 or 40 years ago, a schoolteacher or a Fleet Street sub-editor could have afforded a house here. What explains my good fortune? To some extent many of my generation share it, especially if they worked in a trade or profession that blossomed in the 1980s (better, on the whole, to have been a national-newspaper journalist than a mechanical engineer). Most people I know have grander homes than their parents, no matter where they live in the United Kingdom. If they live in favoured parts of cities such as Edinburgh and Leeds, their homes are often enviable for their architecture and space. Only the very grandest of them, however, could be swapped for 40 cheap houses in Burnley. Above every other consideration – career, age – the combination of judgement and happenstance that made me a London house-owner is what explains my relative wealth. To a certain degree, this is an old story, and common to every metropolis. Moving to London four decades ago, I discovered one-bedroom flats were double the price of those I’d left behind in Glasgow. But then the 1980s arrived and the British economy’s centre of gravity shifted sharply (and to date, permanently) south. Between 1979 and 1986, jobs in manufacturing industry declined by almost two million; 94% of jobs lost in every sector in those years were north of a line drawn between the Wash and the Bristol Channel. The traditional idea of Britain – one taught in school geography books – was a country that made its money in the midlands and the north (including Scotland, and not forgetting Wales) and spent the profits mainly in the south. But now both the generation and consumption of wealth grew concentrated in the same place, and the north-south divide suddenly marked something more fundamental than dialects and traditions. It was during this time, soon after the miners’ strike, that I stood with a notebook in a Bradford street and worked out the house price ratio. I wondered then if it could last. It didn’t seem possible that it could get worse – and for several years around the turn of the century it didn’t. Public spending financed by European grants and taxes raised in the City of London secured for many northern towns at least the suggestion of a viable future, if viability is measured in warehouse conversions, art galleries, warm cappuccino and rising property costs. The crash has since jeopardised all these simulacra of metropolitan living. The odd thing – the unfair thing, considering where the crash originated – is that the metropolis itself is immune. Geographically, never mind socially, we are not all in this together. Life in London now feels different to anywhere outside, as though you leave through city gates at turn-offs on the M25. Never has its atmosphere as a rich city-state felt so extreme. “Revenues have bounced back and we are again seeing strong sales growth. The outlook for the UK as a whole may be gloomy but I think the long-term prospects for London, especially with the Olympics, are very good.” These are the words of Des Gunewardena, who runs a chain of expensive restaurants (Le Pont de la Tour, Quaglino’s) and I read them last week in the Evening Standard, underneath the headline, “Surge in dining out feeds a flurry of restaurant launches”, next to a picture of Sienna Miller arriving at Sheekey’s. Each in the list of a dozen new restaurants still to open has the name of a chef attached. One of those already opened, the Pollen Street Social in Mayfair, took 5,000 calls looking for reservations in its first day. Beyond the hope that manufacturing industry can rebalance the economy, and the faraway prospect of a high-speed rail line to Birmingham, no government strategy exists to spread this wealth further north. The political tone is southern – look at the party leaders, or many of the Labour candidates parachuted to northern seats. It has been left to the BBC to do a little social engineering by – bravely or foolishly – relocating departments to Salford, Cardiff and Glasgow, so that half of its output will be produced outside London by 2016. Will better programmes result? Very few BBC staff seem to think so; on the evidence of BBC2′s Review Show, now made in Glasgow, extra expense in travel and hotel costs looks the likeliest difference. But three formerly great industrial cities will have BBC budgets and salaries added to their troubled economies; there will be job opportunities; the middle class in each place should grow a little larger. The staff who refuse to go are easily mocked. Haven’t they heard about the better quality of life, the Lowry, the easily accessed countryside, the “creative buzz” that’s now reported along the banks of the Clyde and the Manchester ship canal? Their reluctance to move is usually expressed in personal and professional terms: of not wanting to interrupt their children’s education, or being too far away from their show’s guests. But perhaps among their worries there’s something less easy to define; that by quitting London they’re removing themselves from its cultural, political and economic heft, which has grown so remorselessly and, whether or not BBC Breakfast gets done in Salford, will carry on regardless. The country’s centrifuge: both awful and interesting.
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Related posts:Compensation is only for the rich To us, it’s an obscure shift of tax law. To the City, it’s the heist of the century Arc Royal to extend London City Airport
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April 16 2011, 11:21am | Comments »
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Portugal’s new tourism draws are Phantom Of The Opera and Evita
The near-bankrupt country of Portugal hopes a new festival of British musical theatre acts will draw the tourists it needs to recover. The Phantom of the Opera, Evita and Jesus Christ Superstar head the bill. Maybe other versions top London shows will follow.
This article titled “Portugal’s new tourism draws are Phantom Of The Opera and Evita” was written by Vanessa Thorpe, for The Observer on Sunday 20th March 2011 00.05 UTC The songs of Andrew Lloyd Webber have moved audiences to tears and set box office tills ringing in London’s West End for more than 30 years, but can they help to shore up the Portuguese economy? As the country struggles this weekend to play down new fears about an impending bailout by the International Monetary Fund, the national tourist agency has announced a plan to draw a stream of British tourists into Portuguese resorts this summer by booking a succession of popular British entertainment shows and acts. At the top of the bill are The Phantom of the Opera, Evita and Jesus Christ Superstar. The British band Morcheeba is already booked, as is jazz singer Norma Winstone. There are also plans to bring in Lamb, the electronic trip-hop musicians from Manchester. The entertainment scheme, called Allgarve Nations, aims to celebrate the culture of one of the favourite visiting nations each year in turn. “For this first edition we have chosen the United Kingdom, which is our main tourism market, with a programme that includes British artists as well as national ones,” said Augusto Miranda, the co-ordinator of the campaign. “The cherry on the cake is that we are still working on the programme and there are more surprises to come,” he added, announcing the programme of events in Faro last week. Despite his country’s economic crisis, Miranda said he hopes to secure the normal budget of €3m for promotional schemes this year. A reliable flow of holidaymakers from Britain has been crucial to Portuguese finances for some years, but the heavy burden of the economic crash means it is no time for complacency. The influential credit ratings agency Moody’s downgraded Portugal’s financial standing by two notches last week in view of the country’s weak growth prospects. The move prompted damaging speculation that a bailout similar to those handed out last year to Ireland and Greece cannot be far away. The rating agency said “subdued growth prospects and productivity gains” over the near- to medium-term were behind their decision, as was concern that reforms to the labour market and the justice system had yet to “bear fruit”. On Friday the Portuguese prime minister, José Sócrates, urged his parliament to back new austerity measures. “I will do what it takes to avoid a bailout,” he said, emphasising his determination to go to the EU summit this week with a solid plan. His minority socialist-leaning government has staked its reputation on avoiding a bailout and it claims its new programme of spending cuts – the fourth in a year – will restore market faith in the economy. Opposition parties are calling for more, including a pensions freeze. Another glimmer of hope for the Portuguese tourist economy comes from plans for more low-cost flights to the Algarve. A budget airline, Jet2, has announced that it will be adding two new British routes to and from Faro from next month. Property professionals believe the news will help to revive the plummeting local property market by encouraging investors who want to buy second homes and let them to holidaymakers. Prince Charles and Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall, are due to make an official visit to Portugal next week as part of a tour also taking in Spain and Morocco. Their visit will begin in Lisbon and will, according to Clarence House, “celebrate long-standing co-operation between the Portuguese and British navies, support British trade and investment opportunities and highlight the work of the substantial resident British community”.
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March 19 2011, 7:23pm | Comments »
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Cornish pasties are no one’s patsies
http://distributedresearch.net/blog/2011/03/04/cornish-pasties-are-no-ones-patsies
More on the Cornish Pasty, just in time for St Piran’s Day tomorrow March 5th.
This article titled “Cornish pasties are no one’s patsies” was written by Lesley Gillilan, for guardian.co.uk on Tuesday 22nd February 2011 17.20 UTC If I was a Cornish nationalist I’d be out there waving St Piran’s flag, singing verses from Trelawny ( … a good sword and a trusty hand, a faithful heart and true, King James’s men shall understand, what Cornish lads can do … ). I’m not. But I am Cornish, so it’s good to know that my native county finally has the monopoly on the denomination of our regional dish. For nine years the Cornish Pasty Association has fought for Protected Geographical Indication (PGI) status. Now, hurrah, only pasties made in Cornwall can claim a Cornish identity. Under EU law, PGI foods must be “produced or processed or prepared within the geographical area”. So no more copy-cat Cornish pasties made in, I don’t know, London, or Leeds, or even Le Havre. No more nonsense at the British Pie Awards, either (there was a bit of an outcry from the Cornish camp, when Chunk, a pie-maker from Devon, won first prize in the Cornish pasty category in 2009). And the directive doesn’t stop at the pasty’s origins. Like Swaledale cheese, Melton Mowbray Pork Pies or Arbroath smokies (all British foods with PGI status) there are certain qualities, traditions, to uphold. So what you’re looking for is this: under new protected status, a genuine Cornish pasty must be made in Cornwall. It must have a distinctive “D” shape, crimped on one side (never on top); the filling should be “chunky” (minced or roughly cut chunks of beef – representing no less than 12.5% of the content); add potato, swede (in Cornwall, some of us call it turnip), onion and a light seasoning, packed into a pastry case (“golden in colour, savoury, glazed with milk or egg and robust enough to retain its shape”) and slowly baked. Purists might say that the meat should be beef skirt (not steak), and the pastry should be short-crust. I’m pretty sure that 19th century tin-miners – who cooked up the original pasty as a handy form of packed lunch – would have been glad of any meat content (I believe they used to put apple at one end). But I agree with the Cornish Pasty Association, no artificial flavourings nor additives should be allowed. Now, I do like a good pasty, I really do. My husband reckons I’m genetically programmed to sniff one out the moment I get within a mile or two of, say, Bodmin Moor. And it’s kind of true. As soon as I cross the border (welcome to Kernow, goodbye Devon), I get an itch, a hunger for a hot pasty. And it’s a hunger that, after years of practice, I can quickly satisfy. Two miles into Cornwall on the A30, there’s a couple of butchers in Launceston who make a half-decent oggie; on the A38, I’d recommend Paul Bray & Son in Tideford (10 minutes, the other side of the Tamar Bridge). But I have to say, I’ve kissed a lot of frogs during my long quest for the handsome prince of pasties. Laying down the law on quality is all very well, but there’s a lot of genuinely Cornish pasties out there that couldn’t satisfy a single one of the directive’s must haves. Steak, yes, but just a solitary chunk lost in a sticky potato stodge; or lots of rather grey meat that looks like it’s been boiled, or been through a hot-wash cycle. Add gristle. Add heavy, lardy pastry (pet hate: chomping through a wall of the stuff before you hit the filling). Light seasoning? How many post-pasty hours have I spent looking for pints of water to drown the salt. Personally, I wouldn’t touch a Ginsters. Genuinely Cornish, yes, but I’ve seen and smelt the factory (in Callington, since you asked). What about the ubiquitous West Cornwall Pasty Company? Yep, they are all “hand-made” in Falmouth. Based in Buckinghamshire, though – with outlets in Leeds, Norwich, Reading station, Bristol, Bath (thank goodness, because I do get an urge for a pasty when I’m a long way from home). The important thing – I’ll just get the flag out – is that no jumped-up, made-in-Slough, mince-and-mash, flakey-pastry, crimped-on-top, just-pretending-to-be Cornish pasties can take our name in vain. It’s got to be proper Cornish, OK. With that in mind, here are 5 of the best (in my opinion) places to go for a pasty. Sarah’s Pasty Shop, Buller Street, Looe Since Sarah retired, daughter Lucy carries on the family bakery – knocking out delicious, pasties: rich, moist and packed with quality local produce. Ticks all the boxes – wouldn’t share mine with anyone. • 01503 263973 Village Butchers, Trevellan Road, Mylor Bridge, near Falmouth Big, blokey steak pasties made on the premises by this traditional, family-run butchers. Bit out of the way, but they do good sausages too. • 01326 373713 Horse and Jockey, 41 Meneage St, Helston Proper old-fashioned bakery in down-town Helston, making proper Cornish pasties with beef skirt and veg, wrapped in short-crust pastry. If you get there in time to beat the queue, ask for small or medium – the large is, um, large. • 01326 563 534 The Count House Café, Geevor Mine, Pendeen The pasties are not 100% reliable (go early, before they go limp from hanging around on the cafeteria-style counter), but they are utterly authentic, homemade by Mrs Margaret Burford. The views are fantastic, too (eat your oggie overlooking the Atlantic) and as part of the Geevor Tin Mine museum, you couldn’t get closer to the pasty’s roots. • 01736 788662, geevor.com Ann’s Pasties, Sunny Corner, Beacon Terrace, The Lizard On the subject of pasties, baker Ann Muller, could talk you under the table; her mum wrote a book about them and it runs in the family. Her pasties – made in a shop behind her Lizard home – are among the best, and if you ask nicely (after the lunchtime rush) she’ll show you how to make them. • 01326 290889, annspasties.co.uk I’m sure opinion will be divided on the subject of where to find Cornwall’s finest oggie. Where do you go for a proper pasty?
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March 4 2011, 9:41am | Comments »
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Harriet Harman Next UK Leader
http://distributedresearch.net/blog/2010/05/04/harriet-harman-next-uk-leader
OK, here’s my prediction for the outcome of the general election in the United Kingdom, just for fun. New Labour have had their chance and blown it to such an extent that they come third in overall votes, a disasterous result by all accounts. But the Tories fail to win an overall majority in the House of Commons and Gordon Brown tries to stay on as Prime Minister with a minority government, daring the Liberals to vote down the queen’s speech, which they then do. Brown is forced to resign as Labour leader and the battle for a successor begins, with a timetable stretching over many weeks. Meanwhile, the Liberals enter into negotiations with the Tories to see if they can stitch up a coalition government between them. Nick Clegg demands electoral reform as a precondition to more detailed discussions, and David Cameron categorically rules it out. So no deal there. Harriet Harman the current deputy leader of the Labour Party automatically acts as a caretaker leader and approaches Clegg to see what terms he might accept to go in with Labour. A historic deal is then patched together which involves mashing up Vince Cable and Alastair Darling’s economic policies into one chancellorship, big concessions on electoral reform, and a double figure-head leadership which makes Nick Clegg and Harriet Harman both being prime minister. Cameron is thus thwarted from forming a Tory government for at least another four years and such is the jubiliation on Labour back benches that all the other contenders for leadership are persuaded to withdraw from the contest leaving Harriet Harman as uncontested leader of the Labour Party and joint Prime Minister of the UK parliament. Harriet Harman, The UK's second ever female Prime Minister Of course constitutionally, you can’t actually have a joint prime ministership in absolutely everything, there are some occasions when a single name must be applied, such as taking a seat at World Summits etc and in the EU so for these occasions they toss a coin, and Harriet wins.
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May 4 2010, 6:10am | Comments »
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St George’s Day
http://distributedresearch.net/blog/2010/04/20/st-georges-day
St Georges’s Day falls on April 23rd each year and has been quietly celebrated, or perhaps largely ignored in England since the 18th century. Before that it was a major feast day and national holiday dating back to 15thC. It is however, England’s national day since St George holds the position of the patron saint of England. English people tend to have mixed feeling about St George’s day and the St George cross, which is the flag of England, due in some part to the confusion which persists over the difference between identities of England and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. A sizeable proportion of English people and probably a majority of non UK citizens consider English and British to be synonymous, which causes problems particularly for the Scots and Welsh who are most definitely not English, whichever way you look at it. The 23rd April is also William Shakespeare’s birthday and his death day. In recent years there has been a resurgence of the use of the St George cross, the English flag, for events such as International football matches with the England team, and that should be welcomed as a correction of the previous use of the Union flag when it’s not a UK-wide team. Some people feel uncomfortable at the sight of the red and white though, sensing a connection with right wing nationalist politics which has not been historically aligned particularly. St George's Cross - The English flag The most effective advocates of celebrating St George’s day are the breweries, who noticed that people drink a lot more alcohol around St Patrick’s day and would like to see the same happen on as many other occasions as possible, that they can promote. The George, Wansted
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April 20 2010, 4:24am | Comments »
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