RAF sackings - believable?

[aZooZa]

A few HOURS away from their wings...

http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/UK...-Made-Redundant/Article/201102215930035?f=rss

What a cuntry this has become.

 

[Retired_member41]

A few HOURS away from their wings...

http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/UK...-Made-Redundant/Article/201102215930035?f=rss

What a cuntry this has become.

It's unbelievable.

I heard about being able to replace your mp if they are stealing. Is there any way you could remove an mp before next election?

Or is it once in your in?

 

[KarlM]

I read this earlier on and had the same thought unbelievable.

 

[Pred]

this is horrendous
if you want to make cuts, stop making nuclear weapons
we can't use them anyway or it's endgame

if the airline industry was healthy then i would assume ba and the like would be queueing to hire these guys and pay to finish their training
but tbh the airlines are in trouble

i fear you may get diplomats from uae etc. queuing to hire these super trained highly skilled individuals of OURS for their country!

how to take the most loyal servants of our country and ruin their lives

any idiot can make cuts and rule a line through things but it's what you cut that matters

this is not the way. some pilots a matter of HOURS away from graduating!

 

[aZooZa]

We've only got one nuclear deterrent but too many pilots for the number of planes. Your logic is that we scrap Trident or whatever it's replacement is just so that we can employ these pilots that there's no job for?

Logic probably is not to have scrubbed all the aircraft in the first place.

 

[Edwin]

Logic probably is not to have scrubbed all the aircraft in the first place.

I think the timing's pretty disgraceful, but on the other hand if the cupboard is BARE what can be done? Keeping the aircraft would probably have added untold billions to the debt.

In a situation with basically unlimited "wants and needs" (there are thousands of different interest groups, each of which wants to preserve "their" subsidy or funding, from libraries to the armed forces, rural bus services, whatever) and very, very finite (and diminishing) resources, some pretty harsh decisions have and will have to be taken.

It's basically "fiscal triage" - deciding, in financial terms, who lives and who dies. The one certainty is that not everyone can live. Beyond that is a gigantic bunfight...

 

[aZooZa]

Edwin, the cupboard may be bare, but the compilation of the shopping list is criminal.

 

[Edwin]

Edwin, the cupboard may be bare, but the compilation of the shopping list is criminal.

The situation's much much worse than that. The cupboard's been opened, to a collective gasp followed by a furtive look around the room to size up the weakest person and whether they might make good eating...

 

[Edwin]

Agreed and the last thing the country needs is another socialist government who thinks that if you don't have enough money you just print it or even worse tax people for being successful.

Yep. Because one day if they keep digging they'll finally find themselves in a hole that they can NEVER get out of. Cue rampant hyperinflation, social breakdown, mass layoffs, Great Depression-level breadlines etc.

 

[aZooZa]

Full speed ahead then with the new "Big Society". Can't wait.

 

[BREWSTERS]

For a prime example of the previous government's wanton extravagence which has lead us to this position; The Millenium Dome - cost £1billion - one BILLION pounds. A lot of people got very rich from that one. That alone could've ensured these guys at leat finished their training and gave them a golden parachute whilst they find jobs elsewhere. Still, Tony seemed to have a nice night.

 

[FagEnd]

The pilots won't be short of a bob or 2, Daddy will see them alright. It's not your everyday bloke from the council schemes that become RAF pilots, some do, but the majority are posh upper class twats, so no sympathy from me I'm afraid.

 

[stevebrowne]

I don't know if the RAF intake is in any way different to the Navy, but I know/have known a number of Navy pilots (Harriers & Sea Kings), who are anything but posh or upper class.

Also, note that the "hours" from graduating relates to flight hours. I assume that there is a simple formula of flight hours to ground hours, but I doubt that anyone was literallyu a few hours away from graduation.

Of course it's terrible for anyone involved, but on the plus side they:

a) Know how to look after themselves
b) Know how to behave in public
c) Are literate
d) Able to follow technically complex processes

Which puts them head and shoulders above many in the job market.

Labour sucked this country dry, and unfortunately everyone has to pay back their excessive spending. Remember that next time they ask for your vote. They will do the same all over again if they are given another chance.

 

[binny]

Labour have sucked the country dry and unfortunately this time round I don't think we'll have someone with the leadership qualities of Thatcher to pull us back out of the mire.

 

[aZooZa]

I've just heard that it won't affect our commitments in Afghanistan. Hurrah!

 

[BREWSTERS]

Labour have sucked the country dry and unfortunately this time round I don't think we'll have someone with the leadership qualities of Thatcher to pull us back out of the mire.

I don't know about that - David Cameron isn't afraid to make tough decisions, and he has a clear vision of what he wants for the country and how to get us there. Refreshing in my eyes.

 

[Bailey]

It's a painful but nevertheless necessary in any down-sizing. You just wouldn't want to be in the bottom 20% on your flight assesments. Those that are going due to retirement of aircraft type would have seen the writing on the wall probably two years or maybe even more years ago. Don't forget even our current front line fighter (the typhoon) was developed for air-to-air combat - which is now seen as having a zero defence probability or requirement

I doubt anybody receiving a release-letter could honestly say they didn't see that coming.

 

[websaway]

The country has to reduce spending, only an idiot could not see that.
How do we reduce spending ? lot's of people are telling us ways not to reduce spending but I don't hear many coming up with ideas on how to do it differently from how it is being done. Forget the blame game, let's get on with it, it's going to be a long road but the quicker we start the quicker we get away from the edge of the cliff. We don't want to hang about at the edge of the cliff for too long, unexpected events can push you over.

 

[scooter]

Labour have sucked the country dry and unfortunately this time round I don't think we'll have someone with the leadership qualities of Thatcher to pull us back out of the mire.

You guys have got short memories. Or you are too young to remember.

Maggie (although she did do some good,) was the ultimate destroyer.
"Greed is good". "lunch is for wimps"

What did Maggie really do....
She destroyed our manufacturing base completely.
Who has a thriving economy in Europe? The Germans and why? because of their strong manufacturing base. They are happily building and exporting around the world.

What are we left with in the UK? Call centres & Canary wharf
"greed is good"

She ecouraged people to buy and forced councils to sell their housing stock. It's just a pity they didn't plough the money back into building new housing

But there again, how could they? They were forced to sell houses for £30k when it was costing £60K for a replacement. Makes real sense that does.

But hey, greed is good. People sat in their newly bought house for 3yrs as that was the legnth of time before they were allowed to sell. Then they sold for £100K +

So now we have a severe shortage of social housing.


Privatisation:
I agree we needed this but lets look closely at what we actually now have left that is British owned?

80% of our water companies are foreign owned.
Our nuclear industry is foreign owned
Most of our electricity companies are foreign owned.

greed is good.

We have nothing left. No manufacturing base and our main utilities in the hands of foreign ownership. We embraced Maggies vision and now we reap what we sowed.

Ever notice how the rest of Europe pretend to do the same but they still own their own infrastructures and some, they bought ours!

"new labour" was/is old Tory. They just continued down the same road Maggie started.


"The future is service industries and building London into a financial powerhouse"
Well, we took you at your word Maggie, in fact, we were so good at it we thought it would be a great idea to outsource our service industry to India.

Greed is good

Financial powerhouse:
We done good. A crippled economy, 2 state owned banks and a couple of building societies left.

Greed is good.


Our country is fecked. We have villages with no social contact as all the banks decided to pull out (at the time the economy was booming) Why? greed is good.

.........

So, what to do?
The problem this time round is we have nothing left to sell. Ok, not quite true:
post office
air sea rescue
and most likely air traffic controllers

After that, nothing. We have privatised and sold our souls. There is nothing left and we own nothing.

Never mind. Stiff upper lip and all that.


.

 

[BREWSTERS]

That's one way to look at it. Another way is to consider the strength the unions had in the 70s/80s - are you old enough to remember the electricity strikes of the 70s? And every other strike - I grew up hearing nothing but strikes on the news.

The unions were getting so powerful, and with no direction but to want to oppose anything the Conservatives tried to put in place; they did more damage to British manufacturing than Maggie did. People with no idea how to lead but a huge chip on their shoulder...leaders need to be groomed for the position - not picked because they've got the loudest voice.

So now we have a severe shortage of social housing.

No, we have a severe shortage of people willing to work for their own livelihood.