When I first decided to play the game back in 1989 we ran a competition and invited prospective suppliers to a beauty contest at 229 OCU at Coningsby. The clear winners were Aviation Leathercraft and Simon Green. Initially this was just for 25(F) Sqn and we accepted this was merely social discriminator which was unlikely to be acceptable away from home base. The initial deal was that any aircrew on 25(F) Sqn could purchase a jacket for £70 until such time as I relinquished command. Unfortunately for Simon but great for me I ended up doing nearly 4 years in command so lots of guys benefitted from the £70 deal. If I remember correctly 5 Sqn were the next to join the deal; same jacket but claret lining. Chivenor then followed, all clearly unofficial. Then OC Valley decided to involve himself because we were about to go on MPC and he raised the issue of leather jackets with CinC Support Command. Bad influence on students, not uniform, bad example, won't have it.
The whole saga bounced up to the Air Force Board and back down through the Strike Command chain and they were officially banned. 21 years later they are accepted as uniform. Perhaps when we are looking for savings in public budgets we could just get rid of the wa***rs who interfere without contributing.