I am a DCAE brain trainer and I refuse to speak 'Who's coat is this jacket hanging on the floor?'
If the DTR comes up with VietTaff as the best solution my long standing Taffia corruption/moneylaundering/protection/pimping/holidayhomecentralheating theory will be finally proven. :ugh:

Metrix is one of 2 consortia (is that correct Latin?), MC3 is the other, that are bidding for the DTR Public Private Partnership to provide all ground technical training for the 3 Services, the so-called package 1 (Package 2 is DCLPA and such). The preferred bidder was due to be announced next month so there's a bit of a leak here (oh how droll!) methinks. As this is all planned to come to fruition around 2012 after I've retired from the light blue I guess I shouldn't be concerned. Still, I quite like Lincolnshire and have only been to Saints once, not sure whether I'd like to go there again or not, but its academic in my case - not, however, to some of my colleagues.

Of course the taffia option would have nothing to do with the DARA "white elephant" hanger etc would it? Having spent £X millions developing an in depth maintenance facility and then deciding to change the whole approach to maintenance?

You might also have noted that Cosford is in a Tory marginal constituency, where the sitting MP has a majority of 948...

There has, I gather, been quite a lot of adverse comment in the local press covering the Cosford area about the St Athan bid and the involvement of the Welsh Assembly in talking up the prospects of that consortium (along with hints about how not giving St Athan the contract would be a disaster). I daresay Mr Hain's intervention will receive some more comment.

When we achieve total independance, which we definately will in due course, we will charge the English government a fee for each and every military person who crosses the bridge on the way to St Athan for their training, and we will also charge a very attractive rental fee for the use of the St Athan facility.

And the over-fly trips of our land will also be billed to Whitehall.

Indeed, we are working on a huge raft of fees which we will be accruing.

The colossal rip off of our country over the centuries is soon about to end, and the compensation start to flow westwards over the bridge.

Good times ahead for Viet-Taff.:D

Do you really think the base would still be in Wales if you
became independent.

We would simply move it elsewhere and I am sure Wales
would become a left wing socialist state with no military
but more money for single mothers and immigrants.

That would be a complete reversal of policy. It is free to enter Wales but it costs to get out. Mind you that might be an English plot :}

Wrong, actually. You have to pay to get into Wales, but not on the way out.

Much as you do for any other zoo.

There's lovely. Isn't it.

Taffy gonna need a bigger boat for all these fish!

CG

CG and Dodgysumpy,

I have friend who was refused employment at a Welsh College (in Wales!) as she could not speak Welsh. She is/was a trained and experienced "English as a Foreign Language" Teacher. Welsh not involved - as the teaching for this subject does not include speaking the students' languages. (I am told)
My friend was told that it is Welsh Language Law that Educators must be Welsh Speakers. I believe that Technical Colleges are also subject to this Law even if the subject itself is not taught, or even available, in Welsh.

And another thing - Blue Suits! - in a future MOD Training School? - You must be joking? It would be better to assume little or no Uniformed involvement below Squabbling Level. This is also another PFI/PP set-up by Tonies Cronies - of which I expect some sort of Board membership to be announced after June next year. Just another money-spinner.

The only reason Satan (Freudian keyboard slip) is being promoted is due to EU development money putting an inordinate 10 year bias on the finances.

As a sideline - have you ever tried to get a book on jet engine theory in Dutch? - almost as bad as welsh - but at least there are some!

Unfortunately your friend is talking out of their 'rusty bullet hole'! My wife (who is from Kent) teaches in Wales & speaks no Welsh.Welsh is a core subject in Wales (funny old thing!) & some schools do teach all subjects through the medium of the Welsh language.
"Ah - Hain. That rabble-rousing POS who initiated all the anti-South African rubbish (including the Stop the Seventy (Cricket) Tour) when I was at University...."
Beags,do you mean that lovely fluffy Apartheid regime that used to murder,torture & internally exile its own citizens ?

Sure the apartheid regime was pretty awful - but how did trendy-leftie rabble rousing anti-cricket tour and anti-Barclay's Bank demonstrations help?

Of course Hain's fellow traveller Straw was NUS president at the time when we had all that student unrest in the early 1970s.....

St Athan will also be home to Torchwood. :}

http://static.flickr.com/72/178014155_6775f87dab.jpg

Spent 9 months in this dump doing my fitters course in 1980. It doesn't look any better. My commiseration to anyone sent there :sad:

Pretty awful! Bit of an understatement there!
Its all about ethics don't you know,such as in where money is invested,wether or not people are discriminated against.You see they could'nt demonstrate on the streets of Soweto,the police were in the habit of shooting people dead.
Believe Hain had some first hand knowledge as he was educated in South Africa.

Done deal
 

This was a done deal from the moment Metrix decided to use St Athan.
It is political, diabolical and disgusting.
The jobs promised to the Welsh can only come about if instructors and staff presently working at Cosford (in my opinion the best place for this by far) do not move to the new site. That is jobs for the welsh in direct proportion to the jobless in the midlands!
The MOD is showing its true colours on this one

Makes no sense to the thousands of trainees who will have to pay a toll every time they go home for the weekend, and travel hundreds more miles if they're from oop north, than the pretty central location of Cosford.

Not forgetting the history of RAF training - we don't have a long one, but it'd be nice to keep what we have!

Any idea what's wrong with Cosford as a training site?

Rubbish. If you are from Gloucester then it is easy......................................
Look B4265 onto A4226 for about 6 miles then take the A48 for 14 miles before a very short spell on the B4237 before coming back onto the A48, B4237, A449, A40, A417, A4301, Westgate Street, right onto Upper Quay Street, left onto Bearland, Continue forward onto Longsmith Street, turn right onto Ladybellegate Street and finally onto the A4301. voila no bridge no toll.:hmm: