NewquayJacob
Got it in one!
Gasa
Too right, one thing NATS are good at is moving goal posts to suit business purposes, piling on the pressure for ATCOs, rather than look at their top heavy management structure and system where cut backs could be made and significant savings made. Why do small units like Farnborough and Southampton pay for a GM (who is invariably not an ATCO) when a MATS or SATCO could do the job?
Pre-NATS days Southampton fired an ATCO for providing a RAS (as it was in those days) with the ATM to a late arrival in order to leave controlled airspace to make a straight-in approach. How times and attitudes have changed.