I realise this possibly isn't what might want to be heard..but I think the government are into a cost-cutting exercise here.
The simple fact is, the government, ie the treasury, are intent on totally eliminating public expenditure.
What I mean by this is, eliminating expenditure on services currently totally provided from the public purse.
These include the Armed Forces.
I feel the government see a future where the 'country' simply 'purchases' any or all of it's public requirements from the private sector.
This eliminates the huge Civil Service bill, and the huge capital expenditure bill.
Currently the government are engaged in totally privatising all armed forces training.
Much is already in private hands.
I foresee a future where the police, armed forces, etc are actually funded and managed by private companies....a bit like the security industry in Iraq?
This would alleviate a huge treasury headache....that of funding the infrastructure which is currently in dire straights.
The Red Arrows team effectively diverts resources from other areas.
It can very effectively be operated as a private enterprise.
This achieves a couple of things...firstly, it places the budgetting for day-to-day running of the team squarely in someone else's hands....and secondly, it allows the government to easily shift the blame if something goes wrong.
Someone recently reminded me that the major multinational companies, or those that own them, have now got so very little to actually buy up.
Public services and institutions are all that are left??
The Red Arrows likley will go.
Folks' best efforts may well be better used finding private sector funding to maintain them?
Or recognise that the Red Arrows may well be seen as an anachronism as a symbol of our Armed Forces, and be consigned to the same fate as the Royal yacht Brittania...or is that 'Britannia?'
