Moving repatriation to BZN was a gift for the "yes minister" spin meisters. Wootton Basset had long become an embarrassment for HMG where the media saw and reported the weekly repatriations from a war where "
not a shot was to be fired in anger" ( remember Dr John Reid - Defence Minister - that's what he said !) - and yet surprisingly, we are approaching 400 killed, not to mention the massive numbers of lives ruined by serious injury. I have not seen ANY views expressed by relatives of the deceased resenting the dedications of the people of WB.
As we are now politically set to withdraw, it seems much better to our 2nd division Defence ministers that this very public evidence of the true cost of a very ill advised foreign venture, is shielded from media attention. ( Those shocking media people keep telling us what is happening - couldn't we close them all down !)
The same HMG has also mysteriously found £260M down the back of the Downing St sofa to fund yet another foreign "misadventure" ( and has reputedly found as much again hidden in the Treasury to fund the next 6 months of Gadaffi's downfall) into yet another nation's private business, in spite of scrapping various defence programmes, and claiming that the Gadaffi venture was costing only tens of millions !
Surprising how the new war is "funded from reserves" - I thought when GB left office, one of his Ministers reported " nothing left in the drawers or safe" ( Mr Byrne ?) - who was right ?
