QUEEN MARY 2

[Barfluer]

queen mary 2 visit to the river mersey.

[RICEY]

great pics. she certainly is a beautiful ship. saw her later on in the dark all lit up

[kevmul]

I agree.............brilliant photos.

Just come back from spending the last hour or so watching her setting sail.

One of the most impressive sights I've ever seen.

[jfk500]

got some pics of this beauty that i will load up once i get me camera out the car

[Biggles]

Barfluer, please show some respect it`s Queen Mary 2 not queen mary 2

[johnoakes]

I could smell the frogs legs and foi gras from here.
Oh those boat buliding,car making, aircraft selling ,space rocket launching,recession leaving, garlic eating surrender monkeys.
LOL
Somalli pirates anyone.

[liverpoolman1]

What a friend the boat building, car making, aircraft selling, space rocket launching, recession leaving, garlic eating surrender monkeys had in Mrs Thatcher.

[Deleted]

Nov 4, 2009 8:07:38 GMT 1 liverpoolman1 said:

What a friend the boat building, car making, aircraft selling, space rocket launching, recession leaving, garlic eating surrender monkeys had in Mrs Thatcher.

I'm afraid that comment has gone over my head. If you're trying to say the Mrs Thatcher was responsible for the demise our shipbuilding industry, consider these two paragraphs from a report on Scott Lithgow:

With such an attitude it comes as no surprise to learn that the losses continued apace. A move into the oil market initially seemed to offer hope and the government subsidised the creation of a ‘super yard’ to construct VLCCs.* However, the oil crisis, inflation, strikes and technical difficulties all contributed to the failure of this programme and the four super tankers and two drill ships that were built all resulted in heavy losses. Scott Lithgow was therefore very close to failure when the industry was nationalised in 1977. (When the labour party was in power).
* Very Large Crude Carriers
Despite its poor performance in the oil market it became the centre of British Shipbuilders’ Offshore Division and hopes were high that the semi-submersible market would finally bring the yard back to profitability. Again these hopes were cruelly dashed. In Ocean Alliance Scott Lithgow gained the dubious honour of producing the most disastrous contract ever undertaken by a British shipyard. The rig was eventually delivered four years late and at a loss of over £200 million.

Therefore these huge liners are still being built in other parts of Europe when our shipbuilding industry was decimated. The world's largest cruise liner is just being delivered, and where was she built? Finland. Not a country known for its low wages or cheap production costs.
The fact of the matter is that the UK govt no longer understands that manufacturing industry is important, unlike our European neighbours, so they let the financial industry have its' head instead, and look at the result.
I'm not being political - it's just that they are all useless in my opinion!

[andyh]

I tend to agree with you Garstonboy. Successive British governments over the last 25 years have continued to put their various eggs in the financial services basket at the expense of a broader-based economy with a viable manufacturing industry. Hence why so many ended up with so much egg on their faces over the last 12 months when the basket got dropped, and why the UK is the last major economy to come out of recession.

[johnoakes]

;D
Pleae take m y comments for what they are--strictly tongue in cheek--its just that we used to make soooo many things fairly well and now we don't seem to do anything other than pay taxes and hand them out to the undeserving--and I DO pay income tax in the UK.

The news item that we now no longer even make pianos as the last manufacturer has packed in was a shock.

Then I look at the AN-148? ( a twin HS 146 that we should have built) and just feel that we are sliding into a bottomless pit.

I am no Tory supporter and feel that when they are in power they will only be marginally better than the totally corrupt set of clowns we now have stealing and sponging off the taxes of the working classes, of which I am proud to be one.


And another thing whilst I am in full rant.
How can it be right to accept immigrants from a country where we are at war?Should the Afghans in our midst not be interned as the Italians were in the last war.

If rumour is correct the illegal Afghans are arriving straight from the family poppy fields with a full rucksac whilst our troops are dying in them.

Does it make sense to anyone?
Little wonder the English Defence League are calling upon moderate Moslems to join them in the fight against fanatics.

Never mind we can always put our heads in the sand,think its alright really, think things will get better by themselves and blame Mrs Thatcher so we can sleep at night.

For evil to prosper-- and use you own interpretation as to what evil means--all that is needed is for good men to do nothing.
(Burke)

[Biggles]

There was an interesting point made on a panel show the other night about financial aid being poured into Asia and in particular Pakistan/India.which is in the £billions just from the UK.
Funnily enough the countries we pay it to, are as we pay them actually paying out far more than we pay in towards there own space race

I think if that`s the case it needs to stop right now.

[ronturner]

A couple of weeks ago, I toured the shipyards at St Nazaire where the Queen Mary 2 was made. Very impressive it was too, with two cruise liners and a helicopter carrier in production.
Interesting too, as our guide pointed out several times, the yard is owned by a Korean Firm and most of the technical staff and skilled wotrkers are from places like Poland, Cezch Rep, Finland and even Germany.
It seems the yard provides work for French workers if they happen to be secretarial, financial or similar "overheads". The support of the government over the years has secured those types of "indirect" jobs, but not the skills, it seems. Local businesses do faily well out of the yard. (Hotels, retaurants, materials suppliers, service providers etc.)
Currently the yard is in trouble with no new orders after the three mentioned.
RT

[johnoakes]

Yes Biggles we pay millions out each year into the Indian economy--this rising world economic power with its nuclear arsenal,space programme etc still gets about £800 million from our taxpaying pockets.
Good old TATA buying Landrover and Jaguar thanks to govt.subsidies--it feels great to be so rich as to be able to afford these bountiful gifts.

Ethiopia is about to restart its begging programme--check how much Ethiopian airlines has recently spent on new aircraft and what the \Ethiopian airforce has these days-- a few less bombers would keep a lot of poor people less hungry.Makes you wonder where the charity money goes.

Feed the world can rapidly become buy our Miggs!!Check out when the Ethiopian airforce recieved its hardware and wonder where the money came from.

When is someone going to be brave enough to say overpopulation is the problem--stop overbreeding and you will have enough to feed,educate and care for your children--the Chinese have done it most successfully-no famine-no plagues and no handouts needed.

We make the problem worse sending money to breed excessively and taking into our country the excess we have helped to produce
Malthus was right and if it were any item other than human beings we would act upon it.You don't import something you already have too much of .

A French e mail I recently recieved suggested that the Afghans arriving in Britain were coming over to avoid being drafted into the Afghan army or police force--this makes them deserters not refugees--a good reason for a rapid return to their homeland.

All these interesting things and a general election due within a year.The chinese say it is better not to live in interesting times.LOL

Still it could be worse we could have President Banana--(just another politician though it seems we commit a racist act if we lampoon or critisize him as we would any other politician--I remember the cartoon of GW Bush morphing into a chimp--would anyone DARE transpose Bananas face into the same cartoon?--I think not but I wonder why?He is just another self serving politician like the rest.LOL)

The Frech shipbuilding industry in crisis--probably but then they can always build another "Charles de Gaulle " if they need to --perhaps ,they could sell it to Angela Merkel and christen it "BismarkII"--they will do anything to look after their own the French--I used to hate it but it seems to work--over subsidised and using foreigners sounds like a familiar tune.Perhaps the space and aircraft industry is the same LOL.At least they have industry that French kids can aspire to-- makes them proud to be French.

Thank God they can't play rugby or my life here would not be worth a bean.LOL