ER:-
they don't think it is broken, which is the most dangerous issue with it all.
Absolutely bang on! My perpetual, irritating, and very annoying slogan is;
Self Regulation Doesn't Work and in Aviation It Kills!
You sum it up more succinctly and convincingly than I, so thank you! Here we have the dilemma that the very people who need to take urgent life saving action are instead in total denial. They may well be judge and jury of their own case, but there are others above them in Government, Parliament, the Judiciary, Law Enforcement, who have the power to bring them to task and demand changes. Unfortunately each of those institutions have singularly failed to date in their duty to do so, often taking direction from the MOD for their inaction. That is the extent of this scandal, that is what has to change.
Of course it is easier to roll over and say that, "It just ain't going to happen". My answer is that it has to. The RAF cannot ground any more fleets, it cannot accept the unairworthiness infecting its aircraft, it cannot go on protecting certain VSOs at the cost of others' lives, without fatally affecting its operational raison d'etre, to defend our skies and to deny them to our enemies.