An excellent letter, Mr Blakely. As a RAFA life member I would be very disappointed if the editor of Air Mail does not publish the letter. It strikes me as informed, measured and wholly apolitical.
As to where we go from here, we are now in a position where every
independant review of this accident has concluded that there is insufficient evidence to justify the reviewing officers' findings.
The MoD is now in the position of arguing that the MOKG must produce
new evidence to warrant overturning a finding which was unsafe precisely because there was, is, and forever shall be
insufficient evidence to sustain it in the first place.
If we focus on the current MoD position, which could only have been dreamed up by the combined wits of Heller, Orwell and Kafka; it would surely satisfy the 'Wednesbury' test of unreasonableness or irrationality to warrant overturning by Judicial Review.
Now, successful judicial review on the above point would only require the MoD to re-examine the finding and would cost in the region of £20 - £30K. While this may not be out of the reach of a public subscription fund, there would be no requirement for MoD to make a different finding after re-examination so the costs probably outweigh the potential benefits to us.
However, with such a clear-cut case of Wednesbury irrationality or unreasonableness we should be able to put together a case for the
Parliamentary Ombudsman to examine and, hopefully conclude that the MoD's requirement for new evidence in this case is
of itself irrational and perpetuating an injustice.
The Parliamentary Ombudsman option is free of charge and, to my mind, demolishing the MoD's current argument is right up the Ombudsman's street:
"The Parliamentary Commissioner for Administration (PCA) - more commonly known as the Parliamentary Ombudsman - can investigate complaints about actions (or inactions) of central government departments and other public bodies. The complainant must have suffered injustice as a result of the action or inaction."
I am not legally qualified and have no experience of putting a case together for the Ombudsman. However, Brian, if there's anything I can do to help putting a case together, you know where I am.