Gwyneth Dunwoody MP RIP
Join Date: Jan 2001
Location: I sell sea shells by the sea shore
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Clarksons view is somewhat at odds with the truth regarding Swanwick, and those responsible. As ever a mixture of truth and misinformation seeks to rewrite history.... a very old tactic, beloved of politicians in particular.
PPP happened because Gordon Brown pledged in 1997, to stick to the previous Conservative Governments spending plan. ("Prudence"). This included receipts of some £650m specifically from the sale of NATS. Without selling NATS, there was a hole in the budget.
Oh, dear, but Labour had promised "Our Air is Not For Sale" the year before. What to do? PPP was the result and went on to become one of Gordon's favourites for yet another reason, it keeps debt off the public books.
The smokescreen was laid about NATS needs for investment, but this could quite easily have been achieved by a simple change to treasury rules, allowing NATS to borrow on the open Market, as the AEA had then been allowed to do. At the time the reasons for this were not answered.
I still have my letters from various ministers and MPs about this very point. They all declined to answer.
Gwyneth knew all this.
Gwyneth also knew full well what had gone on post IBM, and those who mismanaged it . Air Traffickers (sic) they were not. Managers? They barely "managed". They fully deserved her scrutiny.
BEX
PPP happened because Gordon Brown pledged in 1997, to stick to the previous Conservative Governments spending plan. ("Prudence"). This included receipts of some £650m specifically from the sale of NATS. Without selling NATS, there was a hole in the budget.
Oh, dear, but Labour had promised "Our Air is Not For Sale" the year before. What to do? PPP was the result and went on to become one of Gordon's favourites for yet another reason, it keeps debt off the public books.
The smokescreen was laid about NATS needs for investment, but this could quite easily have been achieved by a simple change to treasury rules, allowing NATS to borrow on the open Market, as the AEA had then been allowed to do. At the time the reasons for this were not answered.
I still have my letters from various ministers and MPs about this very point. They all declined to answer.
Gwyneth knew all this.
Gwyneth also knew full well what had gone on post IBM, and those who mismanaged it . Air Traffickers (sic) they were not. Managers? They barely "managed". They fully deserved her scrutiny.
BEX
Join Date: Nov 2007
Location: UK
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Bex
We're not really disagreeing are we. The Government needed the money from selling NATS but it also needed to have a reason for changing its mind. You say their excuse was the need for "investment". Oviously they could have changed the borrowing rules but then they'd have got no cash. I'm saying the other excuse was the need for "private sector project management skills". They used both excuses - you can't be suggesting that they didn't use the public doom mongering about Swanwick as a justification for the PPP!
We're not really disagreeing are we. The Government needed the money from selling NATS but it also needed to have a reason for changing its mind. You say their excuse was the need for "investment". Oviously they could have changed the borrowing rules but then they'd have got no cash. I'm saying the other excuse was the need for "private sector project management skills". They used both excuses - you can't be suggesting that they didn't use the public doom mongering about Swanwick as a justification for the PPP!
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Only met Mrs D once...and for those brief few minutes found her all at the same time, charming, sharp, insightful and fully aware of what was going on around her (whilst being very carefully shepherded by some senior types). Also remember seeing on TV she and her Select Committee taking a couple of senior CAA people to pieces very efficiently - as ever asking straight questions and demanding similar answers.
As has been said by others, she had an integrity that is sorely lacking in our current crop of politicians (whatever their political persuasions) and her passing is a loss that I suspect will only be more fully realised as time goes by.
Loved to see her on Question Time too.
RIP.....but, if I'm wrong and there is something after we shuffle off, I have a feeling that Gwyneth will be making sure that it's working properly.
As has been said by others, she had an integrity that is sorely lacking in our current crop of politicians (whatever their political persuasions) and her passing is a loss that I suspect will only be more fully realised as time goes by.
Loved to see her on Question Time too.
RIP.....but, if I'm wrong and there is something after we shuffle off, I have a feeling that Gwyneth will be making sure that it's working properly.
Join Date: Nov 2001
Location: Southern england
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Clarky
Of course she wasn't perfect (she was Labour after all) but at least she put principle above politics unlike that dimwit called Martin Salter.
Of course she wasn't perfect (she was Labour after all) but at least she put principle above politics unlike that dimwit called Martin Salter.
Last edited by Rage; 24th Apr 2008 at 12:02.
