April 18 – Reuters: “KLM says test flight reveals no damage from ash“
NATS (Sunday morning): “the restrictions currently in place across UK controlled airspace will remain in place until at least 0100 (local time) tomorrow, Monday 19 April.”
NATS (Sunday April 18, 1500-UK): “the restrictions currently in place across UK controlled airspace will remain in place until at least 0700 (local time) tomorrow, Monday 19 April.” Next decision at around 2100 (local time), today. Though they do now concede that they “are working closely with Government, airports and airlines, and airframe and aero engine manufacturers to get a better understanding of the effects of the ash cloud and to seek solutions“.
Reuters: “German airlines complain over airspace closures“ (Lufthansa raises issue of claiming damages).
“The closure of the air space happened purely because of the data of a computer simulation at the Volcanic Ash Advisory Centre in London,” said Air Berlin Chief Executive Joachim Hunold, speaking to Bild am Sonntag. Perhaps UK forecasters got it wrong again and it was simply “the wrong kind” of ash
3:40pm – British transport minister Andrew Adonis: “European Union transport ministers will consider on Monday whether flights could resume even if volcanic ash from Iceland remains in the atmosphere“.
4:51pm – BBC: “Europe’s airlines and airports question flight bans“.
NATS (Sunday April 18, 2100-UK): “the current restrictions across UK controlled airspace due to the volcanic ash cloud will remain in place until at least 1900 (local time) on Monday 19 April.” . . . . The next update will be issued at approximately 0300 (local time).

NATS say they are “currently awaiting CAA guidance” and the CAA say they are “working with NATS and UK airlines to ensure safety compliance during the current restrictions on airspace.” This does not seem to imply – to me at least – that the CAA was involved the decision. It is simply making sure aircraft don’t fly where NATS tells them they can’t. I would expect some severe buck-passing over the next few days as well as a reverse-ferret from the media.

Monday April 19, 0830: NATS extended it to at least 0100 (local) on Tuesday 20th April.

The CAA has said : “The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), the UK’s independent specialist regulator with oversight of aviation safety, today issues new guidance on the use of airspace. This is issued in conjunction with the Irish Aviation Authority (IAA) and covers the Anglo Irish Functional Airspace Block (FAB).

The new guidance allows a phased reintroduction from 2200 tonight of much of the airspace which is currently closed due to the volcanic ash plume over the UK. There will continue to be some ‘no fly zones’ where concentrations of ash are at levels unsafe for flights to take place, but very much smaller than the present restrictions. Furthermore, the Met Office advise that the ‘no fly zones’ do not currently cover the UK.

Making sure that air travellers can fly safely is the CAA’s overriding priority.

The CAA has drawn together many of the world’s top aviation engineers and experts to find a way to tackle this immense challenge, unknown in the UK and Europe in living memory. Current international procedures recommend avoiding volcano ash at all times. In this case owing to the magnitude of the ash cloud, its position over Europe and the static weather conditions most of the EU airspace had to close and aircraft could not be physically routed around the problem area as there was no space to do so. We had to ensure, in a situation without precedent, that decisions made were based on a thorough gathering of data and analysis by experts. This evidence based approach helped to validate a new standard that is now being adopted across Europe.

The major barrier to resuming flight has been understanding tolerance levels of aircraft to ash. Manufacturers have now agreed increased tolerance levels in low ash density areas.

Our way forward is based on international data and evidence from previous volcanic ash incidents, new data collected from test flights and additional analysis from manufacturers over the past few days. It is a conservative model allowing a significant buffer on top of the level the experts feel may pose a risk.

In addition, the CAA’s Revised Airspace Guidance requires airlines to:
· conduct their own risk assessment and develop operational procedures to address any remaining risks;
· put in place an intensive maintenance ash damage inspection before and after each flight; and
· report any ash related incidents to a reporting scheme run by the CAA.

The CAA will also continue to monitor the situation with tests both in the air and on the ground.”

NATS follwed up at 2040(UK) with “NATS has received new direction from the UK’s safety regulator, the CAA, on applying restrictions to UK airspace following the volcanic eruption in Iceland.

As soon as revised accurate information is available from the Met Office on the location of the dense ash cloud, NATS will review airspace availability and provide an update to airline operators on any airspace that has been restricted for safety reasons. We will issue a further statement by 2200.”

Reuters: “Britain reopens all its airspace“. Curiously, this report says “The first British Airways flight from Vancouver landed at London Heathrow, normally the world’s biggest international airport, shortly before 2100 GMT” (ie 2200 current UK time).

Tuesday April 20, 2300 (UK): NATS welcomes new CAA guidance and reopens airspace
“We are delighted to report that most restrictions on UK airspace began to be lifted at 2134 (local time) this evening, following new guidance from the UK’s safety regulator, the Civil Aviation Authority on restrictions to UK airspace as a result of the volcanic eruption.”

See: http://karl-winn-taunton.blogspot.com/

Nick Griffin acted swiftly to amend the BNP constitution, saying: “Section 4, which deals with the requirements for membership and includes the demand that members support all the principles of the party, is not protected. I have, therefore, with immediate effect changed the section 4 requirements, as I am entitled to do, to comply with the court order.  What this means is that people can apply to join the BNP without having to endorse and support the principles of the party.”

Regardless of whether or not you support the BNP’s aims,  it does seem a little bizarre.  After all,  isn’t politics about creating new laws or amending existing ones?

The publication Lobbying: Access and influence in Whitehall by the House of Commons Public Administration Select Committee (First Report of Session 2008–09) has some good insights on how things work at the moment. It’s a bit heavy and 2.2MB download but if you can just read enough to get the gist of I think you should.

Economist Thomas Sowell defends corporate lobbying as “simply an example of a group having better knowledge of its interests than the people at large do of theirs.” (from Wikipedia)  So, people at large, are you happy with that?

One question that arose in early LobbyGroup discussions was “Would it be legally (or ethically) ok for ANY public servant to be a member of this lobby group?”  According to Rahere “The Civil Service Code is explicit in encouraging a degree of political involvement, as long as it does not compromise the Civil Service’s neutrality in any way – watch the Damian/Galley case with care, as although there is every indication there may be insufficient evidence to prosecute Damian Green.”

Decisions that you may want to effect may be anything from whether or not your track (that has been washed away by the rain) gets repaired to getting troops out of Afghanistan.  It is not the purpose of LobbyGroup.org to say which decision is important to you.  Though discussions are welcome.

LobbyGroup.org has been in existence for almost a year now and has varied in its aims and objectives as members have come and gone.  From now on,  its purpose will be to act as source of information for people – to give ideas about how they can affect what they want to affect.  The next post will hopefully be more detailed on this. In the meantime you can always check out DemocraticBritain..

“We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to amend the general election ballot paper to include an ‘abstention’ option in addition to the named local candidates.”

Submitted by Simon Mortimer – Deadline to sign up by: 05 May 2010 – Signatures: 41 to date.

“Faith in politics and our system of democracy is badly shaken in this country following the expenses scandal, the Iraq war 45 minute claim, the failure to regulate the banks and the failure to protect our troops to name but four.

It is proposed to empower the electorate of this nation to positively register an objection to the current choice of leadership by including an option to express a lack of faith in all the candidates presented.

It is hoped that obtaining such information would spurn us to take a long, hard, honest look at ourselves and our existing systems of government and in so doing add to the democratic process.

Democracy only works if there is a viable choice available for the majority of the people to vote for.

Democracy does not work when the electorate feels forced to choose between the lesser of broadly unsatisfactory options.

As a democratic nation we should be actively exploring if this is the situation that has arisen so that we can consider doing something about it.

It will incur no significant additional cost to add an ‘abstention’ option onto the ballot paper.”

See also the The None of the above party ….

“Current political parties hold an effective monopoly on power. The victorious party swaggers into Downing Street having won a 35% share of the vote, of which a significant percentage voted for them as the ‘least worst’ option. If you then consider that there may have been a 50 – 60% turnout for the election, what type of mandate is that?

Millions of British voters refuse or simply don’t bother to vote, feeling that nobody represents them but that they have no alternative choice. These members of the electorate are often accused of apathy, but in reality are often driven by a considered rejection of policies or politicians on offer. These disenfranchised voters need a channel by which they can express an important view.

Democracy cannot allow poor quality political parties to take office – the country cannot afford it. No longer should some party be guaranteed access to power irrespective of policies or performance.

The bar is currently lying flat on the ground – it is time to raise it…”

The ideas may be a few years old but still fairly valid.

Rahere has waited for this pandemic to be affirmed as inevitable. He would appreciate it if the following could please be posted on the Peston and Robinson blogs, as he is under interdict from Common Purpose:

Rahere begs to remind readers that he made and defended a series of serious apocalypic warnings earlier this year. Although he feels this is merely a warning, he considers that it is no coincidence that Government not having taken any warnings to heart, we now face for the first certain time in recorded history a trans-species pandemic which whilst it may not be of the order of the instant death of the first-born, none the less will prove very serious for a very large number of individuals.
And lest you mistake his meaning, there is a direct cause and effect. The pig breeders who appear to have been behind this were responsible for the merciless technology which stressed both pigs and breeders. They fed the pigs our only serious line of defence, antibiotics, out of sheer greed, and have failed to respond.
Even Obama’s government still supports them. Government worldwide must clean up its act and start behaving not merely morally, but out of sound principals of loving your neighbour, in faith as you conceive it (and not as dictated by a Priest, Bishop, Pope, Mullah or whatever) and in humility.

The only way I can do this is to go via the JuryTeam route.

In order to be nominated I need as many people as possible to text the word

NEIMOR01 to 86837

So thanks for your support.

*First posted on the original Lobby Group blog by contributor Bobrocket.