Surely (don't call me shirley) the point now...
Is that the UK needs an MPA - for better or for worse 'call me Dave' has decided that MRA4 is a non-starter... the public consensus is that Nimrod was a self igniting 1940's airliner, so Dave is not going to be overwhelmed by public opinion - marches in Nairn and Lossie are not going to affect a political party that never got voted in locally anyway. That CAS ought to resign, but clearly isn't going to , is immaterial. (In the old days we had a sort of drinking song that went 'Jump, you ****** jump...' but I suspect the average senior ossifer considers he is able to do far more good by staying in, the perks and pay being largely irrelevant...)
So, the sensible money has surely to be on the P-8? Sod closing Kinloss. buy a dozen P-8's (after all, India is buying them and we do subsidise India, last I noticed, yeah?) Now, take the existing Nimrod expertise and see what we can do with a P-8 to amaze your average spam....***
From the P-8 literature it looks a decent aircraft - not as good as MRA4 perhaps, but definitely something I and my previous colleagues could have got our teeeth into - so let's buy a dozen, base then at EGQK and keep the tradition of excellence going in an area of national priority...even if Dave doesn't know his a**e from his elbow.
Dave
*** Before I get accused of Xenophobia, I like Spams and spend several weeks a year with them these days - most of my bestest friends are spams these days.
Also, I would like to point out (spellinge alert) that I have spelldid most if not all of my worms correctly - unlike everyone 'towing' rather than 'toeing' the line (it's a boxing reference, not a bloody tanker). If I can be ar**d I'll doubtless correct some other common grammatical error tomorrow, me being a teacher an all.
NB - edited at least 3 times, depsite the previous para, for spleinge