Monday 22 December 2014

"Britain to build first permanent Middle East military base in four decades"

Quote: "Britain to build first permanent Middle East military base in four decades

Foreign secretary Philip Hammond says new facility in Bahrain guarantees Royal Navy’s Gulf presence

Chris Johnston and agencies
Saturday 6 December 2014 10.33 GMT

Britain will set up a permanent military base in the Middle East for the first time in more than four decades.

Four minesweepers have operated from the Mina Salmon port in Bahrain, but the new facility will also be a base for much larger ships including destroyers and aircraft carriers.

Foreign secretary Philip Hammond said the deal with Bahrain would guarantee the Royal Navy’s presence in Bahrain well into the future. He said: “The expansion of Britain’s footprint builds upon our 30-year track record of Gulf patrols and is just one example of our growing partnership with Gulf partners to tackle shared strategic and regional threats.”

Defence secretary Michael Fallon said Britain would now be based in the Gulf again for the long term. The rise of Islamic State and ongoing instability in the region contributed to the decision to establish the new naval base, which is adjacent to a more substantial US facility, home to the fifth fleet. Bahrain will contribute most of the £15m cost of construction, with the UK picking up the ongoing costs.

Chief of the defence staff, general Sir Nicholas Houghton, said the deal was symbolic and strategically important. “Rather than just being seen as a temporary deployment to an area for a specific operational purpose, this is more symbolic of the fact that Britain does enjoy interests in the stability of this region,” he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.

“And the fact that the Bahraini authorities and government agreed to fund infrastructure within the country to base our maritime capability forward, both is a recognition from their perspective of the quality of the relationship with the United Kingdom, but also of our interest over time in maintaining the stability of this very important area.”

Bahrain’s foreign minister Sheikh Khalid bin Ahmed bin Mohammed Al-Khalifa said the agreement underlined its commitment to work with the UK and other countries to address threats to regional security.

Lobby groups including Human Rights Watch have criticised Bahrain’s record on human rights. Despite the Arab spring uprisings, Britain, the US and Saudi Arabia have supported the government following widepsread public protests in March 2011. The uprising led to the cancellation of a Formula One race due to take place in Bahrain that year.

John Horne of Bahrain Watch said in May: “There is growing frustration about the UK government’s increasingly visible support for Bahrain; [it] has a long, dark history of enabling state violence in Bahrain and protecting both British and Bahraini officials responsible.”

In 2012 King Hamad pledged to implement the recommendations of an independent commission to examine the roots of the country’s crisis, but reform has been slow."* Go to:http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2014/dec/06/britain-first-middle-eastern-military-base-bahrain

Quote: "New energy dawns as first LNG tanker arrives at Milford Haven

AFTER six years of planning, protests, court battles, claims and counterclaims, the first LNG tanker arrived at Milford Haven yesterday.
The massive Tembek carrying super-cooled gas from the Middle East to one of two new terminals in the county came in to dock escorted by a flotilla of tugs.
Once fully operational, the liquefied natural gas plants it supplies will be capable of meeting up to 25% of the UK’s current gas requirements.
The ship’s arrival was met by protesters who have fought the £13bn projects, but Milford Haven Port Authority said it could handle LNG shipping safely.
The tanker, which had sailed from Qatar, was moored off Pembrokeshire overnight onThursday, waiting for the tide to allow it to berth at the newly- built South Hook deep water terminal.
It is the largest LNG plant in Europe and is a joint venture between Qatar Petroleum, ExxonMobil and Total.
LNG is natural gas which has been converted to a liquid by cooling it to a temperature of -160°C.
In its liquid form, it occupies much less space than gas, making it easier and more cost-effective to transport.
It will be turned back into gas at the terminals and pumped into the UK network along a specially constructed pipeline running from Milford to Gloucestershire.
South Hook is the larger of two terminals built at the port.
The other, Dragon LNG, a partnership between Malaysia’s state oil firm Petronas, BG and the Netherland’s 4Gas, is expected to become operational later in the year.
The companies say LNG imports will increase the UK’s security and diversity of gas supply while helping to ensure that natural gas remains a competitive source of energy.
But the plants have been opposed by campaigners since they were first announced six years ago.
Gordon Main, founder of campaign group Safe Haven, said there were concerns that sufficient risk assessments had not been carried out into the possibility of a collision or major incident at the port.
Members of the group sounded a World War II air raid siren from an island at the entrance to the waterway to greet the tanker’s arrival.
Safe Haven commissioned its own report which it says shows “that a proper risk assessment of LNG cargo spills to the onshore population” has not been carried out.
Milford Haven Port Authority said a large number of reports and risk assessments had been undertaken.
“We are confident that we can handle LNG shipping safely and efficiently along with all other users of the port,” it said.
Milford Haven MP Stephen Crabb said the project would provide vital gas supplies to the UK.
“Local people have followed the progress of this project with enormous interest over the last four years,” he said.
“For many it has provided welcome new employment and income. For some, it has been a source of concern and anxiety. My hope is that the arrival of the first cargo and the commissioning of the new plant will go some way to providing new assurance to local people as to the safety of LNG operations.
“The cold winter we have just experienced and the Russia- Ukraine gas dispute has highlighted again the tight gas supply scenario we face.
“As North Sea gas production continues to decline, South Hook will provide the UK with another strategic entry point for vital gas supplies and will enhance our energy security.”" Go to: http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/new-energy-dawns-first-lng-2119286

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@25.0362959,50.4495874,8z

Monday 1 December 2014

Oppose; "plans for a tunnel to bypass the neolithic site"

If you don't believe this, quote: "I would also point out that the implications of the work of Michael Poynder R.I.P (and many others), and the spiritual and religious traditions of "The Old Religion" which remain extant in our culture (despite the centuries of persecution at the hands of those who have called themselves "Christian"), suggest that there are "good and solid" geological reasons for the placement of many (if not all), of the Neolithic sites in these islands which relate to the movement of water below the surface and the subtle conductivity of the rocks and minerals themselves." Go to; ""The Cerridwen" an Update on the Mesolithic, Neolithic and Bronze Age Landscape": http://gkhales.blogspot.co.uk/2014/01/the-cerridwen-update-on-mesolithic.html , ""Earth Stars! Michael Poynder (R.I.P), as Promised in "What's that Coming Over The Hill?""" Go to: http://gkhales.blogspot.co.uk/2013/12/blog-post.html
.... and ......
"Anyone Fancy a Round of Golf?

Tunnels can be dangerous, one imagines tunnels underwater especially so. Tunnels are not suitable as answers for transport management systems in "our" ("our" if you're "British" that is), areas of significant ancient religious use (Hey a new acronym! A.S.A.R.U -Hmmm ....areas of "SARU"-), which means in effect that in Britain, Brittany* (other parts of France and other N.W European countries), and Ireland, tunnelling (and quarrying), should be approached with the utmost care and with reference to authorities who understand the nature of the "S.A.R.U" of the area.

*"The History of Brittany
People probably lived in the region before 8000 BC. The first known, but unidentified peoples, built the great prehistoric megalithic monuments, known as menhirs and dolmens, that still stand. These were probably constructed between 3500 and 1800 BC, and are located near the town of Carnac and at other sites. When the Celts migrated here they, in all likelihood, intermingled with the prehistoric peoples, and built the region into a confederation of Cymric Celtic tribes." Go to http://www.french-at-a-touch.com/French_Regions/Brittany/brittany_5.htm

Twyford Down

Twyford Down was just such a place (actually although it was "such a place" nothing that happened there was "just").
Modern archaeologists (especially the social and agricultural historians amongst them), may have some understanding of what was lost at Twyford Down (and to be honest it still is a truly painful subject for me to talk about).
However... those who understand that the colonisation of the major landmass areas of these islands only ever took place once in humanity's history* , should also understand that this "Rosy Cross" is a unique tabula rasa for agricultural scientists (because of its "quartered" nature), and as a result it's history represents one of the most complete and easily assimilable works of applied "astrologomal"** science imaginable (or at least it did -never try and teach maths without also teaching spacial awareness-).
Why it now may not be is because of the rape of Twyford. You see, back when the ice sheets first began to retreat and people started to colonise these Islands on a large scale the south of Britain was ipso facto colonised first (given our current post "Flood" planetary orientation***). This meant that places such as The New Forest, Hengistbury Head, Twyford Down and others were the very first to be used as social, religious and agricultural centres. As such this of-course makes them our oldest archaeological "seed libraries", without which; climate data, ecological relationships, social interactions, religion, biology and "astrologomy" cannot be studied .

*(Edit 12/07/10 at least in a modern "agricultural" sense -and I may be accused of something of the same myself given the slightly "ham-fisted" nature of this edit- as I am advised by the recent discovery of one million year old (approx.) flint tools belonging to Homo Antecessor in Britain. Go to http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2010/jul/07/first-humans-britain-stone-tools )

**("Astrologomy"= astrology/astronomy, I'm convinced S.A.M -"Stone Aged Man"- would have laughed at the idea of "splitting the sky in two" either that or considered the notion very bad medicine indeed!)" Go to: "What's that Coming Over The Hill?": http://gkhales.blogspot.co.uk/2012/06/whats-that-coming-over-hill.html ,

...there is no way "we" can protect this, quote; "A tunnel is set to be built under Stonehenge to relieve one of Britain’s most traffic-congested roads.

Chancellor George Osborne is expected to commit hundreds of millions of pounds to give the long delayed project the go-ahead.

It would end years of debate over the infamous bottleneck on the A303, which runs right past the World Heritage Site in Wiltshire.

It will also provoke furious opposition from campaigners, who fear a tunnel could damage the hugely important 5,000-year-old site, visited only last month by US President Barack Obama.

Traffic jams on the A303, one of the main routes into the South West, have plagued motorists for decades – prompting a local MP to brand it the ‘devil’s highway’." Go to; "Stonehenge traffic jams to be consigned to history as Government dusts off plans for a tunnel to by-pass the neolithic site": http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2798141/stonehenge-traffic-jams-consigned-history-government-dusts-plans-tunnel-pass-neolithic-site.html

Future generations deserve better than a shoddy and compromised response to the Stonehenge sites traffic management issues!


Quote; "AMESBURY, ENGLAND—The site of a Mesolithic camp known as Blick Mead, or Vespasian’s Camp, could be destroyed if a new 1.8-mile-long tunnel for the A303 is dug near Stonehenge. The 6,000-year-old camp is located about a mile and a half away from the monument, and is thought to have been occupied by hunter-gatherers who returned to Britain after the Ice Age. The bones of aurochs, flint tools, and possible structures have been uncovered. “Our only chance to find out about the earliest chapter of Britain’s history could be wrecked if the tunnel goes ahead,” David Jacques of the University of Buckingham told Buckingham Today. A team from the university uncovered the 7,000-year-old remains of a meal of frogs’ legs and a natural spring at the site. To read more about the site, see "Frog Legs Eaten in Mesolithic England ." 

   
Go to; "Blick Mead in Path of Proposed Stonehenge Tunnel": http://www.archaeology.org/news/2841-141219-stonehenge-blick-mead
The U.K Government's Responsibilities.
Quote; "Article 4 of the World Heritage Convention, it is the duty of each State party to "ensure the; identification, protection, conservation, presentation and transmission to future generations" of its World Heritage Sites. 
 Each State is committed to "to do all it can to this end, to the utmost of its own resources and, where appropriate, with any international assistance and cooperation, in particular, financial, artistic, scientific and technical, which it may be able to obtain."
Link to World Heritage Convention" Go to: http://whc.unesco.org/en/conventiontext/
"Geo"-"metry" = "Measuring the ground" Pythagorian geometry's precurser  was Brythonic "spacial awareness" math ("we have no "papyri" fair princess!"),