[BITList] Secret report reveals Labour is failing troops

[HUGH]

John,

I can't say much about tanks and planes, but warships and related are increasingly conceived, designed and built by committees of numpties whose only contact with the end product is a picture they have hanging in the bathroom.  The current aircraft carriers, HMS Herewegoroundthemulberrybush and its mates, have been hawked around the UK, and mainland Europe for all we know, for years.  They are being built / will be built in bits here there and everywhere, making lots and lots of money on expenses for the "travelling folk", and causing headaches for any planner who can remember how ships used to be built.  When Kincaids and Clark Hawthorn "merged" in the 80s, getting hold of anyone was a game of chance.  "Willie has gone down to Wallsend.  I'll let him know you wanted to see him."   "Willie left here two hours ago." Etc.  Add dilution of skills to the above, and god knows what's happening.  When Harland & Wolff were building an MOD vessel in the late 80s, the drawing office work was farmed out to others, and I was at that point with Sir JH Biles, one of the others.  Once a week a chap came over from Belfast with a briefcase full of changes and new paperwork.  These were distributed, the old paperwork was gathered in, we got the erasers out, and he and the boss went off for a liquid lunch.  Someone sober enough would drive him to the airport, and the merry go round would recommence.  We only knew once a week if what we had drawn had been worth drawing.

Reverting to the present situation, what happens is that places who lack people with foresight, or (more importantly) people with the balls to shout, accept anything they read and built errors and howlers into the system.  At best, many expensive meetings are held to discuss the resultant balls ups. At worst, they stay unresolved. 

Hugh.
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