The importance of food - a cautionary tale
A little tale. In 1998 the MoD(PE) Directors General started what was termed “coffee with the DG”, whereby ones DG (2 Star) would invite about half a dozen staff, of different ranks/grades, to sit with him, have a coffee and, without fear of retribution, speak openly about issues which concerned them. (But only one issue each).
When it was my turn, a few colleagues became tongue-tied in the presence of greatness, so there were 3 issues.
First, a Sqn Ldr expressed concern that experienced staffs were being ignored on Nimrod RMPA and the long-predicted, and yet only recently announced, 4 year slip was nothing compared to what was to come.
Secondly, I got on my hobby horse and noted that senior staffs continued to condone the deliberate waste of money, while I was being denied funds to attain and maintain airworthiness; while waving the audit report which backed me up.
Lastly, a young lady took her life in her hands by complaining that our staff canteen charged more for a banana than Sainsburys across the road.
The good Sqn Ldr and I were dismissed out of hand. “What slip?” and “Of no concern to MoD(PE)”, I clearly recall. But the case of a banana which cost 2p more received the full weight of his 2 stars, whereas we would have preferred him to concentrate on little things like Nimrod and Chinook Mk3 which, while simple enough jobs, were turning to rats in precisely the manner predicted a few years before.
There are some who are fixated about food (who end up too fat to pass their emergency egress drills), and there are those whose limitations are exposed by an inability to grasp what is important.