As Andrew says there's nothing to reveal, the figures are available for everybody to see. We've had this conversation already. My point is that - based on their published figures - Pleming (and possibly others) have been paid a huge amount of cash, and yet they seem incapable (or unwilling) to offer even a vague explanation as to why they should be entitled to anything like that amount. I don't think it's unreasonable to conclude that being paid such a huge sum of money is absolutely disgraceful, given the fact that so much money has come from individuals who wanted to help get the Vulcan back into the air.
Had the prospective donors been told that so much of it was going to go into Pleming's pocket, I suspect their donations might have been considerably smaller. People gave money (often money that they could ill afford) to this project on the assumption that the money was going to be spent on the actual cost of getting the aircraft restored into a flyable cndition and then sustaining it as a viable airworthy aircraft. I'm pretty sure that nobody gave money to the project with the expectation that such a huge chunk of it was merely going to go into people's pockets. The engineers who did the hard work of getting the aircraft flyable were certainly entitled to be paid for their efforts but as for the rest? Come on, get real, I don't think I'm the only person to think that it's completely and utterly disgusting.
As I've also said before, if Pleming thinks any of this disgust is unfair then he could settle the matter simply, by explaining what he has been paid and for doing precisely what. It wouldn't exhaust him to offer some sort of explanation as to where all the money goes but yet it never happens...
Anyway, that's my view. If you disagree bubbles that's fine, but I could do without your sarcasm thanks if it was directed at me. The purpose of a forum is to express views, not to simply have a go at people you don't happen to agree with! I'm taking a wild guess here, but I have a feeling that I'm not the only person who has this view and frankly it's not my responsibility to offer long and tedious explorations of every specific matter which I've been told about, even if I was irresponsible enough to identify the people who tell me (which I'm not). Clearly, as the leader of this project, Pleming has a (very well paid) duty to explain where all the money goes and why. He chooses not to, therefore we're all entitled to draw our own conclusions.
Last edited by Tim McLelland; 30th Dec 2008 at 17:46.