I could well eat my own words but there is a truth there about balls etc.
On their side in all this is a fact that is strange to the NPAS crew. The Met alone have a number of income and interest streams. Yes there is Home Office money that they and the others now in, or nearly in, NPAS have had to beg for but there are other important elements pulling the strings here and the strongest was just enacted out in Paris today.
There may be some general bleating about delays in sending messages via West Yorkshire but I have serious doubts that any government want their direct air support over Whitehall seriously endangered by adding a layer of decision making in a remote control room that may well put the Government of the day in additional mortal danger.
Its not just that either, historically the Met was always integral in the Defence of this country - even their 1930s Autogiros were written into Dowding's Air Defence of Great Britain - a factor that might be well understood in Northern Ireland. They are NOT in NPAS for many of the self same reasons.
Rumour suggests that the architect of all this thinks its gone too far when it affects what are now his men and maybe he is not to enamoured in placing the grand strategy with the former representative of a police force [Kent] that has a glorious aviation history centred around the Cessna 172 and an annual budget of £25,000 and plans that were a pipe dream called HERTI.
It seems that Gouli posted similar thoughts as I did...
Last edited by PANews; 7th Jan 2015 at 23:20.
Reason: Comment on newer post by Gouli