Err... sorry, Airsound, that doesn't add up.
1. "Given to understand" sounds rather like "chose to assume". "Only became apparent" means "Only became apparent to the numpty who chose to assume". I very much doubt that the CAA changed their mind about issuing new a permit to fly on Friday evening - I suspect that they said what they said a year ago, in writing, and have been entirely consistent ever since!
2. Why would BAES spend time and money doing destructive testing on a scrap airframe as a favour to VTST/TVOC? Why, when XH558 was in apparent hibernation over winter, didn't VTST/TVOC offer to turn up and do the work themselves? If the offer had been made but BAES refused to allow TVOC/VTST personnel to do it themselves, and the work wasn't going to get done, as would have been obvious weeks ago, why didn't VTST/TVOC forewarn the CAA and achieve resolution with them one way or the other back then?
So, if the CAA said what they meant and meant what they said a year ago and haven't said anything different since, and if BAES haven't done anything wrong, then it's really not a case of 'shrug, it's nobody's fault'. It's a monumental engineering project management f***-up of epic proportions. With an aircraft that is probably slated to do no more than ten public displays a year, and is typically either U/S or WX prevented from participating in at least 60% of them, that leaves about 4 possible UK flying displays a year that are actually going to happen, and this entirely avoidable cock-up has just wiped out at least two of them, possibly more. This year the 'display season' started in mid June because the 'winter maintenance' wasn't started until spring, and it could already be over. Pisspoor return on all those pledges from people who wanted to see the thing fly...