The way the playbook proceeds thereon calls for ongoing reduction in the number of jobs under whole or majority foreign ownership, succeeded by eventual closure that we'd like to think won't happen in this case. What is significant here is that of three firms bidding for this medium-sized helicopter project, two withdrew participation.
This led to a take-it-or-leave-it decision with a focus one imagines moreso on jobs and less-so on helicopters; it also guarantees the bulk of funding for autonomous helicopters is to be guided toward existing firms instead of start-ups: a practise in MIC circles that reduced US contractors to five.
I once demo'd a security system I'd developed ~ backed by the British Technology Group ~ to Margaret Thatcher's Minister for Technology at the National Exhibition Centre... and that's a lot of capital letters. At the end of the demo he turned partly toward the collected cameras to ask. "And it's all about creating jobs, isn't it?".
To which remarkable restraint stopped me from replying, 'Yeah, press this key and jobs stream out the back.'
Happily I just discovered Kenneth Baker is still alive at ninety-one and sitting in the House of Lords. I plan to drop by and say "HELLO KEN, IT'S THE NICE MAN FROM THE EXHIBITION WITH HIS FUNNY BIRO AGAIN."
Ed. Due similar restraint a recent post was given the title 'Leonardo Di Carpio' while the author preferred 'Leonardo Di Crapio'.
