well, buy my sums you arrive at £147 by taking £125 (maybe £100 for the training, £25 for the expenses?) and adding VAT. That comes to £146.87 - rounded up to £147.
Here's a thought - the Spanish government does not levy VAT (or IVA as it's known here) on pilot training - having your pilots trained is not deemed to be a "luxury" like Gordon Brown believes.
There is a strong likelihood that a similar regime (no VAT on training) would make pilot training in the UK cheaper, more attractive to self-sponsors who can't claim it back like the airlines do (unfair or what?) and so UK schools would not be moving overseas or subcontracting to the states. That would mean more money earnt and spent in the UK, compensating for the loss of VAT income.
We took 100 jobs away from Ayrshire when we relocated to somewhere where we could afford to provide quality training at the sort of prices less "quality-oriented" providers can charge. Read it and weep Tony, Gordon and the Scottish "Pretendy, Wee, Parliament" (to quote Billy Connolly).
[ 14 October 2001: Message edited by: moggie ]