As an outsider it's hard to gauge the opinion on the squadrons - mind you, it's a lot easier now there are so few to canvas - I post on this thread because I still care about old crewmates and friends who are still in, I imagine they might feel somewhat constrained in what they say online...I don't.
Airworthiness is regulated, although like all regs when you get right down to the nitty gritty some of the regs turn into some sort of cloudbank.
The RAF has clearly gone for saving money instead of making sure the airworthiness of the 6 or 7 aircraft currently in service is maintained, after a long period of 'all okay so far' things have turned round and bitten them on the aspidistra...to the extent that a genuine 'proper' fix is probably too expensive. I see the current prevarication as a means to spin out the life of MR2 to ensure MR4 finally gets into service before MR2 goes to the knacker's yard. (or MR5 arrives - a rebadged Chipmunk with a very powerful set of binos in the back.) Call me a cynic.
What the RAF/MOD has done over decades is despicable, although you can understand perhaps that the defence budget never allowed the RAF to do otherwise. Money is the root of all imcompetence, to paraphrase.
Dunc - well done for trying, as a complete outsider, to understand this stuff. Ultimately this is about money and backbone - nobody failed to do things through malice, although stupidity is another matter. They probably felt virtuous as they cut essential programs by saying they were the guys willing to make the hard choices - this is a term the banking industry of the western economies is now learning means 'self opinionated, clueless w***er'. This is a boom time for soup, if the late 1920's early 30's are anything to go by.
Nimrod groundies are taught a lot of stuff, it turns out that some pretty important things were omitted and it took a while to find that out because the people supposedly teaching it said they WERE teaching it. (Confusingly it seems they weren't. You kind of have to wonder if they were a bit dim, lying, or hoping a magic flying pony or similar would sort it all out like happens on the TV.) Unfortunately when this was finally realised nobody sorted it out quickly enough, possibly because they were also a bit dim (lazy is an alternative opinion), or they didn't have the cash/backing to do anything about it....which is what I'd put my fiver on to be honest.
Historically this isn't really that unusual - it's only the advent of instant worldwide chat via the internet that has allowed the dirty washing to be displayed so readily and that has allowedgeneral revulsion to be expressed at the apparently callous attitude to the loss of life...the guys bombing the Belgian bridges in Fairey Battles got a few gongs and the odd barrack block named after them (not my idea of an honour, mind)? What about the Coastal crews who were tasked to take Hudsons over Germany to make the numbers up - not much H&S there, I'd suggest! I think it's a sign of progress that we are so concerned about this sort of thing, compared to previous generations.