Thanks for the replies chaps.
Graham:
If you are maintaining and paying for something you cannot sell, you get rid of it as quick as possible. If your money is falling out of your pocket at £10 a minute, you don't spend an hour thinking about the best type of new pocket - you just stop the money flow. In general it is cheaper to scrap something today, as tomorrow labour will be more expensive.
with respect, taxpayers money has been pouring in faster than the 10 quid a minute is leaking out...
But eitherway, we're not just talking simplistic, widget making/bread selling business scenarios here.
The second issue you raise is not logical - you just don't know what its like to have something, which costs money every day you keep it when a customer stops paying for it. You get rid asap.
If you are maintaining and paying for something you cannot sell, you get rid of it as quick as possible. If your money is falling out of your pocket at £10 a minute, you don't spend an hour thinking about the best type of new pocket - you just stop the money flow. In general it is cheaper to scrap something today, as tomorrow labour will be more expensive.
The second issue you raise is not logical - you just don't know what its like to have something, which costs money every day you keep it when a customer stops paying for it. You get rid asap.
How about trying to find other customers for whatever it is? Its not as if BAe havent tried with Typhoon.
I just hope none of your kids, should you have any, ever have any intentions of becoming engineers of any kind... because by this kind of logic, as soon as any order is finished and the books appear empty for a while, whatever is left of British industry might as well give up and go home. Maybe most of the Formula 1 teams who dont so much as scrape two or three points a season and certainly never win anything ought to chuck their workers on the dole as well and "get rid".