Chilli
Quite right. The thing is that whenever the Serco word is mentioned NATS staff cross their arms and - rightly - say "no way". That is beacuse of the way Serco approached NATS staff during the initial bidding process - big hammer. Now that Serco has "withdrawn" probably hoping that the whole thing will collapse and they can have at NATS on the cheap, NATS staff can put the threat, seen as considerable, behind them.
The Serco threat caused immense problems for NATS staff and (I was at LATCC the day TAG won) the relief was tangible, not only for keeping ones job/salary/pension/sanity(ish) but believing that Serco were and are wrong for national, large scale ATC.
NATS should not have been privatised, we all know that. The govt will not re-nationalise unless there is absoloutly no other option. As long as BAA and govt dish up the dosh we will be ok. If they don't............who knows.