I don't care what the moaners say.... no one was sure if it was safe, and I for one wouldn't have wanted planes flying over head just because it was an "acceptable" risk.

(I wouldn't have got on one of the buggers either )

Idiots...should have put all the whingers etc on a plane on the first test flight. Can you imagine if a plane crashed etc...oh the government shouldn't have allowed it! etc.

Agreed it was a lose lose situation. The way i see it, i certainly wouldn't have wanted to be on a plane when all 4 engines suddenly stopped

Sometimes makes you wonder how people get through life struggling on one brain cell, bet these people wouldn't have volunteered for a test flight. I have to be p*ssed to get on a plane as it is, I'd have to be dead to get on one flying in those conditions

That would explain the head of ba or whatever company it was going up in a plane to show it was safe.

Looks to me like old stupid dunt has been MAKING threats behind closed doors..........AGAIN.



Gordon browns a twat, end of story, an american "new world order" tosspot.


baaaa baaaaaa gordon, bye bye.

Labour would probably win the election if Gordon Brown was replaced.  He is spoiling their chances.

spot on spidey..you aint as big a crawling bugger as gordon.

Well,  Theresa Villiers (Tory transport secretary) has been trying to turn it into an election issue, but while it's true that it took the Government 6 days to tone-down the no-fly zones, that's simply because it took the regulators 6 days to tone-down their advice. It's like swine flu all over again: it's all very well criticizing the Government for being over-cautious after the event, but in reality it would be completely unthinkable for them to go against their advisors on a public safety issue. If they had and something went wrong, they'd have been crucified. Even if nothing went wrong, they'd still be in trouble for endangering the public: they'd never get credit for calling it correctly.


As for the airline companies: it's in their interests to blame the Government because (a) they want to deflect attention away from the fact that they didn't all fulfil their legal requirement to look after their passengers, and (b) they want the Government to compensate them for their financial losses.

Oh admit it, Nodrog soiled his pants at the first bit of advice he was given.

Brown wouldn't have anything to do with the issue initially. Nor should he have: that's what his Transport Secretary is for...

Ok, so mr transport secretary wasn't the first bit of advice Gordon recieved...lol...come on!!!!!

Gordon, we could have a problem, there's some tiny particles of ash floating about, it's a bit windy ootside..My jobs at stake if a plane crashes, and there's a tiny .....tiny....chance one might, more chance of hitting a gaggle of geese though.....


Ok.. I don't want to look bad either mr transport, lets down the planes and clean our pants eh!!

Are you seriously suggesting that they shouldn't have grounded the planes? As I said earlier, it's easy with hindsight to criticize decisions for being over-cautious, but the reality is that only a reckless fool wouldn't err on the side of caution when public safety is an issue. I've had dealings with safety issues in manufactured products, and any company that values its reputation (and more to the point, doesn't want to be sued) is always hyper-cautious when it comes to safety issues. The recent problems at Toyota are a sobering reminder that you consider safety to be anything other than top priority at your peril...

all I'm saying eugine is, that if there wasn't an election coming up, I wonder what would have had happened..I've made my own mind up as to what would have happened and typed it down..but I'm a cynical bugger so, hey ho!


I think if there wasn't an election coming up, we wouldn't even know there was a freekin earthquake erupting!!

HMMM it seems the government(s) WILL take the advise of their "scientific advisor's" on SOME issues, but not on others, decriminalising a certain "herb" for instance,
and I love how the election has turned into the Xfactor, like, who is the best looking seems to be most important in SOME peoples minds,
right..time to let the ......dust settle on that one...whooooosh,

Remember, the original flight restrictions came from the CAA - an independent organization. The Government had nothing to do with it. To suggest this had anything to do with the election is ridiculous. The volcano posed (and still poses) a serious risk - look at the damage done to those F-16s. The airline companies are trying to pass the buck onto the Government because they want compensation, and the Tory's are trying to blame the Government because they think they can make political capital out of it. The reality is that no Government would have behaved any differently - election or not.

The difference is, of course, public perception. The GBP are, understandably, rather sensitive to threats to public safety. No Government would dare go against scientific advice on safety issues because, as I said in another post, the public would never forgive them if anyone died, but wouldn't give them credit either if they were proven correct (and would probably still criticize them for risking public safety).


However, the public perception is that "drugs are bad", so (in the current climate) no Government would dare relax drug controls, regardless of the scientific reality.


Public perception (often coloured by biased media) always wins over facts. I remember years ago when a Daily Mail campaign forced the closure of a scheme with (amongst other things) rewarded young offenders who behaved themselves with foreign holidays. When some journalists looked into it further, they found that the scheme cost much less than locking up the offenders, and the rates of youngsters reoffending under the scheme were lower than for any alternative. However, public opinion won over savings to the taxpayer and reduced crime rates...

In the 'good old days', John Gummer would have been forcing his four year old daughter onto a test flight... 

lol Blizzie.

I couldn't believe that stupid mare Teresa Villiers (shadow transport secretary) demanding an inquiry into WHY the government didn't realise it was going to happen before it did, and WHY they listened to aviation experts and downed the planes.
Unbelievable - so as well as all his other faults, Gordy's to blame for not being clairvoyant now?

Can you imagine the outcry if planes had been dropping out of the sky, all the experts I watched said exactly the same thing. The ice in the cloud could do irreparable damage to the engines. I very much doubt Cameron would have done anything different, it's madness to place planes full of people in that sort of danger and not knowing they were as safe as possible. 

Gods struth, I can't believe anyone could even contemplate letting the planes fly in until it was clear that they were in no danger. Bloody hell, even I would have agreed with it if it had been Cameron in charge and that's saying summet

The Tories are using this as an electioneering tool, which would be laughable if it wasn't so stupid.
According to them, Labour SHOULD HAVE KNOWN the Mt Oojibar (or whatever it's called) was going to blow, and should have also known more about how volcanic ash affects air travel.
But the last time anything like this happened was in 1980 - Mt St Helens. That caused flight disruption for transatlantic air travel, and it happened on the Tories' watch.
Are they saying they learned NOTHING from that, which might have been helpful this time? Or that they did know, and kept it to themselves? Thousands of people stranded and millions of pounds lost aren't as important as scoring cheap political points, then.
I DEMAND a public inquiry..

SECONDED

pmsl just seen this

Eugenes Lair the tories are showing how desperate they are to win votes, I believe the majority of the public are now seeing through them ...

Like many people I was disappointed that Gordon Brown turned out to be another right wing PM. However in terms of facing off national crisis you can't fault him. He faced the domestic terrorist threat, he sorted out the global economic crisis even if it meant bailing out the one track minded, greed ridden, fat cat, capitalist hooerbags, and he has dealt with this one.