Drayson locks Forces chiefs out of Defence budget carve-up Lord Drayson, the British arms industry's man inside the Ministry of Defence, has moved to lock the heads of the armed services out of the room in which the Forces' future is to be settled. This is being billed as an attempt to prevent interservice bickering, but it will leave the rapacious UK arms business facing almost no …
The recent Gray report on defence procurement recommended that the MOD's Defence Equipment and Support organisation should be turned into a Government-Owned Contractor-Operated company (as has happened to the nuclear weapons establishments already). This recommendation has been rejected by the Chief of Defence Materiel.
"Who's money?..... "in its bid to pocket more government cash."
Just a brief note to remind everyone that the government has NO money. It's the taxpayers i.e. yours and mine." .... nematoad Posted Thursday 11th February 2010 10:45 GMT
Err, ... you cannot be serious, nematoad. It is though the illusion which governments and bankers like everyone to think. But the Great Scam is Uncovered and is being AIReEngineered for much more than just the Empty Rhetorical Promise of Change Forever in the Planning and Never in the Doing.
And who Controls the CyberFleet Budget for Advanced IntelAIgent Forces ...... or is that at a Much Higher Level of Astute NEUKlearer HyperRadioProActive Command and Control and Way Above and Beyond the Lord Drayson's Contrived Pay Grade?
Drayson is a pointless waste of perfectly good carbon isn't he?
A jumped up Labour Party donor who made his first fortune selling a batch of life-expired vaccines to - oh - a Labour government and then made another one selling smallpox vaccines to - a Labour government - without ever having to tender for the contract.
First a couple of points to clarify: "£1-2bn in exports" Where did you get that from Lewis? Last time I read some official statistics it was closer to £6-7bn and the UK was the second biggest exporter in the world of complex defence products and this was a figure supporting somewhere north of 80k jobs in the UK. As for the £1bn unarmed warship, it is actually £650m per ship and you only need radar, a deck gun and to carry a couple of miniguns on the rails for it to be armed enough to anything important at this time... The ships will be fully armed when they need to be.
As for Lord Drayson promising the arms biz loads of juicy contracts... He can promise all he wants, he is not the one who decides which contracts gets placed in the MoD (although no doubt he will lobby hard), any Typhoon or vehicle contracts have already been placed or are not ready to be placed this side of the election and he will be out of Government exployment within four months anyway. In short, he can marginalise the service chiefs all he wants, there is nothing he can deliver anyway and any promises he makes will not survive the Tories or the Service Chiefs when it comes to approving the projects.
All this meeting will do is provide a love fest where the good Lord and the two military guys can be fed, boozed up and then promised nice little directorships in those ocmpanies,,,
To be devils advocate - I don't think it's neccessarily a good idea that we lose all our defence manufacturing capability. Hell friends become enemies frequently enough that you can never guarantee we wont' have to build our own weapons all of a sudden.
Not that I'm defending BAE for a second - my grandad worked for Easams who then became part of Marconi and then BAE, and as soon as they did he left as in his words, they were an utter shambles who had no care for the end users.
I think it's the skill we need to make sure we still have rather than the Biritish companies if that makes any sense? Kind of like the car industry - it's almost impossible to buy a British car, but there's plenty of cars made in Britain.
"To be devils advocate - I don't think it's neccessarily a good idea that we lose all our defence manufacturing capability. Hell friends become enemies frequently enough that you can never guarantee we wont' have to build our own weapons all of a sudden." .... Daniel Wilkie Posted Thursday 11th February 2010 14:41 GMT
Be Thoroughly Assured and Astutely Aware, Daniel, that Special Intelligence Servers have All those Bases XXXXStreamly Well Covered, ..... and Provided For, Too.
John Smith 19,
The Future of Outed Lapdogs in the Lords is not one of Fame and Fortune and Leadership. .... It is one of doing an Invisible Master's Bidding to ensure Continued Favour/Sweet and Sticky Treats, Especially Designed for such Pathetically Programmed Mutt's Palates.
Sorry Lewis, whilst trying to be "investigative journalism", this 2 page rant is nothing more than a reading the rule book of the game. Still you won't be the first person to profiteer out of UK arms sales ;)
As for the "rapacious UK arms business" - that would be different from the corresponding US, French et al businesses who are just charities in comparison... yeah right.
One perk you must be overjoyed at with your love of all things merkin, is that the UK is still dependent on Uncle Sam for parts, and consequentially, the permission to use them. You don't work for the DOD by any chance?
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