perhaps we should start a thread for people who have refused or declined such well known opportunities...........

at the time I was interested in a Naval GunFire Support job, the first stage was the commando course, the second stage was jumping out of an aircraft then go to Poole for the NGFS course.
I passed the shipboard section of the course and decided that I didnt want to do it from the other side - I don't like heights and jumping out of an aircraft or lying in cold water is not my idea of fun, so just did it successfully from ships only.

presumably you didnt like the idea of sitting on a Martin Baker not knowing if the pin has been removed or not or that the plexiglass canopy would pop off ?

Now that we've all had a good laugh about the evacuation story and Christmas is out of the way, you would think the media attention would turn elsewhere, but no.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/f...o-failure.html

Not only is the foreign office seriously considering evacuation, but now the treasury is considering banning capital inflows from stricken EU countries to stop sterling going through the roof and hurting our exports. Interestingly, under EU (not Eurozone) rules, this would need majority EU agreement for the UK to introduce these measures.

After Cameron's veto, what is the chance of that happening?

So, they want to evacuate us because if Sterling goes through the roof there would be a million rich expats in Spain?

sounds like a story being put around by the FCO to justify their retention of so many staff whilst there is blood-letting elsewhere.
I would imagine they have "Plans of Action" for a wide variety of scenarios that need to be pulled off the shelves and dusted down, but the parchment rolls are probably getting a bit brittle now, and all users will require white cloth gloves.

Having been involved in the mass pull-out of armed forces from Aden, their plans will include ships, aircraft, and men, that they don't seem to realise they don't have.
How many £millions would be required to cover the cancellation costs of cruisers and their repatriation if in the wrong place. Then do we have any shipyards available to carryout the alterations that may be required.

In the 50's, 60's and 70's we had some rivers stuffed with the "Reserve Fleet" in mothballs. That is all gone, sold for the lowest level of scrap value. I saw the gung-ho attitude with which ships like HMS Eagle were stripped of higher value items when they were withdrawn from active service, even before they were put on the scrap list.

Well its a good storyline that makes a change from the usual Christmas shopping stories, especially as it is being forecast that several big names will be returning the keys to their shops in the New Year when their quarterly rents become due.

.

Oh Yeah and don't forget the Great British youth is still around making the usual headlines welcoming tourists in Oxford street and Salford and reminding SOME of us ex pats why we don't want to be there anymore.

Yes. Quite right. These guys must all be exhausted having their one remaining hormone try to conjur up some testosterone Go have some more cake boys.
I do like this new Plaza de toros. Can we have Bil back as well please. Then we can sit back and watch the suelta de vaquillas... But with all old men.
Most of us girls on here on the other hand are hot!
(we'd prefer not to be...but menopause gets you that way)

Because the UK is the only place in the world where people are stabbed?

Even the Monks and Priests have been fighting in Bethlehem...whats the world coming to

There are stabbings every week in the málaga newspapers and almost every fiesta has at least one stabbing, even in the small pueblos. Best not to read them...oh! most of you don't do you

I do wish some ppl would read some post properly, he was talking about the Uk headlines being back to normal, wasn't he?

Exactly.

A stabbing in the UK is major media headlines.
In Spain it's almost everyday local news but hardly worthy of a mention as headline material.

Maybe just as well for expats that Spain doesn't have a Daily Wail.

What the eye doesn't see......

I do think in Spain the perpetrators are usually older, In the Uk they are getting younger and younger and with no clear motives. To me that is much more scary.

Most of it is gang related and they are stabbing each other not the public at large.

Yes exactly that dreaded wheel keeps on turning like in 50's with Teddy Boy Gangs which led to the offensive weapons act etc.

I was around during the Brixton riots in 1981 and it was pretty scary stuff because it had never happened in the UK before. Driving past dozens of burned out police cars made you think that dialling 999 in that area at that time would have been pretty futile.

Whilst these nutters spend their time taking it out on each other, according to the feedback I get from one such area, life for the vast majority of peace loving folk goes on pretty much as normal and they don't feel particularly threatened.