GrahamO - it would be helpful if you could be a little more specific with your accusations.
I have just spent the time going through this whole thread. The sum total of deleted posts comes to:
a. About half a dozen that I deleted on 13 and 14 Feb as they were severe thread drift and absolutely nothing to do with the topic under discussion. For example, personal slanging matches about who gets flying pay and when, and whether or not they deserve it is rather outside the sphere of this subject. None of these were your posts.
b. There were 7 posts deleted by the posters themselves on 13, 14, 15, 26 and 28 Feb (one of them was yours).
c. There was one post deleted on 13 Mar because it had been posted twice by a newbie who obviously made a mistake.
So maybe you could make it a bit more clear where "slavishly following the party line" has detracted from this debate, because I actually have better things to do with my time than to spend it refuting odd charges from the punters.
Many thanks in advance .