S-H & Safeware
I don’t think you’re too far apart, despite emotive words.
“Safety Culture is not something you can talk about cutting, it can be lost or broken, but you can't decide to cut your safety culture safety culture by say 50%”.
Funny you mention 50%. That is precisely the financial cut our Director demanded to the annual spend on maintaining safety and airworthiness. He was argued down to 28% but we took that hit 3 years running. I would say that if you slash funding like that, on processes and procedures which are mostly not volume related (i.e. they cost the same regardless of how many aircraft you have) then (a) you are way past your level of competence, and (b) you are encouraging a culture whereby safety and airworthiness are seen as optional.
Couple that with his oft-stated assertion that people who worked in this field were “the rump end of MoD(PE)”, and you have a recipe for disaster. Effectively he is saying, “Take that career path and you’re going nowhere”. Anyone who understands the application of these processes and procedures knows that the effect is not immediately apparent – it takes years. Time for him, and those like him, to move onwards and upwards.
I happen to think the processes and procedures are robust. They work if funded and applied properly. What is lacking is a process whereby the application is verified. It no longer exists because of the above cuts.