Caution mini ramble follows:-
Quote:TB – “He should take the couple of million he’s already taken on false pretences and resign, he is plainly not up for the job.”
Now as any fellahin in the bazar will tell you – that’s the plain truth. One of the many reasons underpinning the judgement of OST is his terminal ignorance; another is accepting whatever his troops tell him as gospel; which takes us to an interesting junction on the road to Reform. “Pull up GD, lets have a shufti”.
This junction is clearly an accident black spot, carcasses of reform initiatives dragged to the side of the road and dumped, kicking up a hell of a stink. Some have gone beyond the purification stage, mummified in the rarefied atmosphere; others are quite fresh. I’d say forensic examination would reveal several reasons for the demise of the victims. The freshest corpse has a toe tag – ASRR – it has clearly been starved and beaten before being mown down by the CASA juggernaut as it screamed down the road to Perdition at a rate of knots. You can actually see the skid marks which indicate the driver took the hard left turn to Perdition after the event without slowing down – road kill. It’s a sad looking thing, this ASRR corpse, dressed by hope, braces by logic, belt by common sense, boots by practicality. Just someone’s opinion. Aye; RIP, indeed.
So what happened here? Ignorance has much to answer for; OST was and remains totally ignorant of the working of industry, particularly the lighter end of town. In the beginning, this could be explained, even accepted as part of his background in the rarefied air of the ‘forces’. Many excellent folk from the forces have joined the ‘authority’ and made valuable contributions. Those were they who were ‘accepted’ into the civilian ranks’. Civil aviation is no less a ‘closed’, elitist organisation than the forces equivalent; one must be inducted and accepted to gain full, rather than ‘visitor’ membership, or a tourist visa. So the ignorance of Skidmore was initially tolerated by industry, but it was fully exploited by his own troops. Skidmore believes travelling about the place, pressing the flesh, indulging in tea and biscuits would gain him not only acceptance, but entre. Wrong. Partly, industry organisations are to blame for this; the CASA boss is visiting, play nice, no spitting, no shouting; kiss arse, play nice and curry favour. I’d bet good money that few, if any organisations gave Skidmore the rounds of the kitchen and sent him home with a well deserved flea in his ear and a sore arse. No matter, those that did would be very quickly discredited by the CASA machine and OST could simply and safely ignore the odd howl of protest from the IOS. But the fault is his and his alone; he took no steps to learn more, see more and gain ‘acceptance’. An easy mark for the creatures at Sleepy Hollow to manipulate.
Now some may call bollocks to the above; but you’d be wrong to say such. Skidmore actually believes the fairy tale woven for him by the Hoo-Doo Voodoo clan. He claims flying schools are busting at the seams with bright young things desperate to fly; that engineering workshops have work piled up for months ahead and apprentices beating down the doors; that every regional airline is making a motza and the profits from charter flying are obscene. This is the specious argument being used, as recently as yesterday, to oppose industry reality. Sad, but nonetheless true.
So, who fills his head with such nonsense. Nonsense which he happily transmits to the Department and thus to the minister. Take a look at who survived the latest reduction, see the positions they hold, then wonder no more.
But for mine, the final insult is the adamant refusal to look back and see why his CASA is a hated, feared, defunct, basket case of an organisation. If he was dinkum about reform, he could win the support of all by simply naming, shaming and firing those who had, have and continue to abuse the system Skidmore imagines he governs. No chance, they are his mates, a life support system for a Muppet emperor who delights in his new motley.
A honourable man would resign and donate his ill gotten gains to a worthy charity; but he wont. Nope, he’ll just sit at meeting tables, spouting the bullshit he’s been told as the truth, denying the past and buggering up the future. No matter, those who led the Skidmore lamb to the sacrifice will still be there, long after he is gone: long gone; but not forgotten as the worst, most ineffective, purblind, manipulated, compromised DAS in history. That title took some winning children; but he has managed it, with ease and a little help from his friends.
Selah.
