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Indeed. Well said.
What I'd like to see Mr Cummings ask: 'What would have prevented (Project X) being a disaster?' This is a military aviation forum, so let's just say Nimrod and Chinook HC Mk3. (Around £5Bn wasted at the time, plus loss of capability).
I'd be astonished if anyone in MoD Main Building told him the truth... 'We should have implemented mandated regulations'.
He could then head down the M4 and ask the same question at AbbeyWood. Someone brave enough, and with nothing to lose, might say the same; but I doubt it.
Mr Cummings might think 'This isn't so difficult', and he'd be right.
He might then ask the question a different way. 'Why is it that more complex programmes, at the same time, were delivered to time, cost and performance, or better?'
There are few, if any, left who could tell him the truth, but it's in the Post Project Evaluation reports. 'We ignored directives, and implemented mandated policy'.
Where he, and the Government, need to be really brave is to recognise these truths, and sod hurting the feelings of the retired officers and officials responsible. The real problem he might face is that some of the politicians who knew the truth, in advance of the failures, still sit on Defence committees; or at least are still MPs or now Lords.