Zooker.....
Please accept this in the spirit in which it's intended!
Why did we introduce radar? Procedural was perfectly good, and any controller worth his or her salt could keep the picture in their heads. I mean this new-fangled radar is so unreliable. It'll never catch on. Picks up cars, buildings, weather, anaprop, I can hardly tell if there's an aircraft there at all!
Why did we introduce SSR? Primary radar was perfectly good, any controller worth his or her salt could keep the picture using primary. And any, half the time pilots enter the wrong codes any, and the other half of the time the Mode C readout is wrong! It'll never catch on.
Why did we introduce code-callsign conversion? Raw SSR codes were perfectly good. Any controller worth his or her salt could keep the picture using the codes. I mean they're even written on the strip! I keep yelling at my radar trainees to look at their strips, not the radar.
Why did we introduce labelled ground radar systems? Primary SMR was perfectly good. I controlled before A-SMGCS introduction and GMC was fine, even in low vis. Anyone good enough could keep the picture in their heads. And now we'd probably even put spacing on inbound if it failed, in good visibility! Shocking I tell you. Good controllers don't need a ground radar!
Why did we introduce Mode S Vertical Stack Lists? Any radar controller worth their salt can manage the stack using their strips.
Why on earth does our electronic strip system automatically highlight any aircraft positioning to other LTMA airfields so that the controller doesn't forget to co-ordinate before start? When I trained we had paper strips and any GMP controller worth their salt would just remember!
And why does our electronic strip system automatically highlight certain flights by certain aircraft types on certain routes which require release by radar? Any GMP controller worth their salt could remember all the 'release subject...' flights, surely?
Why have we just introduced a pushback indicator on the Lighting panel? Surely any controller worth their salt could keep the picture of GMC in their head......surely any good controller wouldn't need a back up in case they forget that they have just routed an aircraft along a taxiway on to which they have also just approved a pushback.