Originally Posted by
Evalu8ter
Proon,
Re the Vulcan. As many of the pilots/navs were going to transfer to the GR1, perhaps they had to reduce the Vulcan fleet to free up crews? Other examples are perhaps minor compared to Labour’s gross fiscal / industrial incompetence in the mid 60s which forced the ‘nothing East of Suez’ mantra, mass cancellations and a whole raft of capability gaps/holidays which left the UK barely able to fight OOA in 1982. The Harrier / carrier decision in SDR10 was an ‘enforced’ gap caused by? Oh yes, more fiscal incompetence and political cowardice from Labour - the original plan was to run on both till QEC IOC to maintain skills. SDSR10 had to make tough and unpopular decisions due to the mess the EP and SP were in as Labour simply kept spending money they didn’t have between 2008-10. The Tories happily carved out a Peace Dividend in the early 90s, but I’m sure you would have supported that? We’ll agree to disagree over the merits or otherwise of Austerity; but I’m convinced it provided more headroom to cope with the current crisis than we would have had if we’d had another decade of Labour profligacy.....anyway, G&T anyone?
Evalu8ter,
Prefer a nice glass of crisp sparkling white if you have it?
That may have been a consequence of the early Vulcan and Canberra withdrawals but it certainly was not the reason, that was purely financial. I knew some of the aircrew of the time and they were all rather long in the tooth to be heading towards Tornado, though some of course will have gone that way. Totally disagree about the other examples being minor in comparison, and TOTALLY disagree with your weird recollection of the mid 60's! The 1964 Labour Govt inherited a broken and devastated economy from the Tories, it was the origin of the "there's no money" note left for the incoming Chancellor. Wilson and Healey both wanted to retain a presence in the Far East but subsequent devaluation and runs on the £ led to the decision to withdraw, and as for the cancellations of 64/65 they would have happened which ever Govt was in power. TSR2 was unaffordable, didn't work and was an outdated concept, and P1154 and HS681 simply would not have worked! I may surprise you but I most certainly would NOT have supported the Tory Peace dividend as it was obvious that the UK armed forces were going to be used a lot, an awful lot, and we needed the numbers and capabilities squandered by Rifkind in 1992 as a financial saving. Oh, and the 2008 financial crisis was caused by US sub prime mortgages and complicated debt packages in the financial sector world wide, NOT the Labour Government, in fact to the contrary it was the leadership and innovative and rapid moves by Gordon Brown which showed the rest of the world the way out of the crisis. I thought he was a lousy PM and a bad leader, but he DID get that right.