Political Penguin

There may well be a few more posts cropping up on this issue when I get the time to put various bits of information together but I thought I’d point you in the direction of Westmonster who has picked up on the angle of the value of gifts that if they exceed £1,000 should be registered with the Electoral Commission. Incidentally I’ve been meaning to mention how good a site Westmonster is for a couple of weeks and has definitely joined my daily read list and will go on the blogroll when I get a moment.

What she does raise though is an important question. Did Flying Lion Limited actually fly various senior Tories including David Cameron in their own plane or simply pay the cost with another carrier? I feel I should point out that in my last post on Flying Lion Limited that perhaps I could have given the impression they’d used their Dassault Falcon 900EX executive jet to do the flying around for which I didn’t have any specific proof of.

On that note I’d just like to point readers in the direction of a little something that cropped up in a search this evening. Realising that it could be distinctly likely that Flying Lion Limited simply paid for flights with other carriers I decided to see if I could track down their only registered plane’s movements.

I would like to say at this juncture that I have over the last hour or so become distinctly impressed by plane spotters. They’re great people who diligently keep records of planes flying this way and that for the sheer love of it and good on them.

I say that because thanks to them, I came up with this little log from Luton Airport for November 2006. Yes, I know it’s a really big text file but the bit you’re looking for is:

2006/2201 VP-BMS F900EX LTN-KRT

Just to decode it a bit. the 2006/2201 from looking at other records appear to be time of departure, if there are two numbers then it’s the difference between expected and actual so it looks like the flight left at 22.01. VP-BMS is obviously the registration number of Con Air 1, followed by the plane model number Falcon 900EX. The LTN-KRT bit is the most important because that’s the airport codes. LTN obviously being Luton but what is KRT?

Well, quite simply, KRT is Khartoum, Sudan and looking at Davey Boys register of interests he flew to Khartoum with Flying Lion between 20-21 November 2006. Now this record is for 19 November but as Dave registered the interest in advance, things could well have altered slightly or simply because the flight was so last he could have been confused, who knows but that plane definitely flew from Luton to Khartoum and interestingly returned on 21 November 2006 which is when Davey boy says he came back although interestingly it seems to have been via Paris.

There’s also an interesting account from another plane spotter based in Blackpool who clocked Con Air 1 at Blackpool airport on 29th September 2007. Remind me again where and when the Tory conference was this year? I’ll be keeping a close eye on those register of interests in future.

Final little ditty. For anyone wishing to fly with the Tories favourite airline, here’s something sobering to think about from the Air Accidents Investigation Branch. Mind you, didn’t stop Michael Ancram being gifted flights by Flying Lion only 4 days later, not to mention rather a few others in 2003.