Just This Once,
No, Sir, the previous correspondence hasn't passed me by. I posed the questions because after the - how can I put this delicately - difficulties over the way forward, I have seen nothing which convinces me that the services are going to get out of the SAR business anytime soon. It follows that until I see an alternative 'game plan' with a robust transition plan, I judge nobody actually knows where this is all going. I am cynical/realistic enough to know that we shan't simply bin SAR and leave it all to the coastguards
I have always regarded military run SAR as being a pretty good recruiting Sgt and it is very popular amongst the civvy population. The decision to send Flt Lt Wales to SAR was a master stroke in many ways.
One only needs to look at almost every facet of public policy to know that:
a. we are deep in the smelly stuff.
b. nobody seems to actually have a grasp of the way forward.
c the political elite is doing what they always do when a and b apply and that is; look at all sorts of unimportant issues - HofL reform, gay marriage etc, elected police commissioners - which will cost money we don't have.
I'm not being party political just wondering what the country is sliding towards.
Old Duffer