Pretty cool.

I work in the NHS and if you could see the waste here you would be amazed. I imagine it’s the same in any public funded organisation. We had £25,000 the other week go down the pan because someone couldn’t check there spelling in a publication before it went to the printers. It’s all going to recycle heaven now. This ain’t the 1st time either. Take £10 billion out health, education and social security the world wouldn’t end up disaster. Red tape is costing this country so much. It used to take less civil servants to run the whole British Empire from London 100 years ago than work in the MOD today.
Tahat tells you something. Roll on Bonfire of the quangos.

I suspect there is a very great deal of fat to trim in the public sector, start with this Government’s obsession with measuring everything, I work in Market Research and my company receives more tender requests from various police forces than any other industry/sector and currently count 3 forces as current clients (with another 3 that we’ve done business with in the last 5 years). We do stuff for various clients of the NHS as well.

Unite criticises Lib Dem MP over aircraft carrier contract

1st July 2009

Unite the union reacted with dismay after yesterday’s ‘predictable’ responses to the future of the MoD aircraft carrier contract after a leaked document suggested a £1 billion hike in cost to build the two vessels.

The ranks of the ill-informed, including Willie Rennie MP who claimed that Labour is ‘busting the bank’, responded after a leak emanating from lead contractors for the construction of the two aircraft carriers.

Alliance Management Board (AMB), suggested the possibility of 400-500 redundancies after the projected cost rose from £4 billion to £5 billion over the last year.

However Unite, which has substantial membership at both the Rosyth and Clydeside yards that will undertake work on a significant bulk of the contract, have hit back suggesting that the likes of the Lib Dem member for Dunfermline & West Fife have missed the point completely.

Unite national officer for aerospace and shipbuilding, Bernie Hamilton said: “When will these people realise that AMB’s ‘leak’ is designed to do one thing and one thing only and that is to force the government to agree to the increase in costs wanted by the employers (Carrier Alliance) for the extension to the in-service dates.

“Those of us actually involved in the industry understood that the agreement to extend the build programme, to create a better payment schedule for the government, would come at an increased cost.

“Predictably employers know only one way to force a Labour government into meeting their demands on costs and that is to publicly threaten hard working families and their future employment.

“Mr Rennie and others have bought this leak hook, line and sinker and in their desperate efforts to make themselves look relevant to the electorate they have shown themselves to be political novices.”

http://www.unitetheunion.com/news__events/latest_news/unite_criticises_lib_dem_mp_ov.aspx

You naive fools he thinks that you can fight TWO wars on a peacetime budget.

Hey, I’m just saying what Gordon Brown thinks. The fact that he outlined his grand vision for the future yesterday, without any costings or any indication of where the money is coming from while we are in the middle of a recession and on the same day as news like this comes out speaks volumes for me.

Plus you would have to factor in the cost of equipping dockyards and service maintenance personnel with imperial rather than metric tools.

Never even thought of that:eek:

Yess. I’m all for Cavours!

A larger option would be to license-build Makin Island.

Surely a license build of Makin Island would cost as almost as much as a CVF? When you factor in the costs associated with cancellation of the CVF contract it would probably be a lot more.

Why replace them at all.

Do we need Airpower at sea?

Dave

Yes.

Why do you want to buy more T45s instead? They are built for protecting things, if CVF gets cancelled the only things they will have to protect will be Amphibs, the 6 that we already have will be more than adequate. Also a T45 has a unit price of £650m what you are proposing would cost £5.2b which will probably be as much as the CVF after increases.

Yes it is true,

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/8125449.stm

Dump them, 8 more Type 45’s.

Dave

And replace the Invincibles with what?