Watch the full proceeding
here
Transcript
here
Painful viewing for a number of reasons. In no particular order :
Francois grandstanding (apparently Crowsnest should just be a simple re-run of SKAEW Mk2 and Nimrod MRA4 was a disaster related to Nimrod AEW3, or something.....)
Bollom equivocating, when he could be more explicit as to the technical and regulatory challenges faced nowadays
Williams unable to say more than a couple of words without "errrm" inserted.
What comes across in spades is that :
1. The army has a major problem with Ajax. Irrespective of whose fault it is, if they don't get it fixed, they'll never be allowed any money to buy anything again, ever.
2. While Francois' heart may be in the right place, he vastly dilutes his message through his means of delivery - grandstanding with lashings of ignorance and only gets away with it because the witnesses are politically savvy enough to realise that telling him he's rectally rambling will only cause him to try and get them later. A shame - as a suitable riposte might actually help understanding on both sides.
3. We desperately need better briefed pollies and CS that are able to convey arguments succinctly.