More here
Next meeting Mon 20th July 6.00pm Temple of Peace, Cathays Park, Cardiff
News St Athan PFI Military College
1. locals unhappy with plans..more here... noise from arms testing, ambush training,military jet training
2. The Welsh Assembly Government (WAG) have agreed to fund clearance
of the site.. £12.5M. I hope this means some AMs will ask questions
3. Qinetiq consortium denies £1.3bn hole
1. locals unhappy with plans..more here
The Vale Council is currently considering the extensive planning application for the Defence Training College (DTC), and the public are being invited to express their views.
Coun Roger Eustace told The GEM: “There has been much local support for the DTC, but the previous public consultations and exhibitions made little mention of the type of military training – which was always presented as low level. “The goalposts have now changed.” ..
up to three military jet aircraft training on northern cross runway for up to four hours per day...
“The range will also be used for armament testing, including 5.56mm minigun and the larger calibre general purpose machine gun. .....The area will mainly be used for ambush training comprising noisy initial demonstrations followed by a few hours of dry drills. Typically, there will be eight demonstrations per day consisting of two Land Rovers being ambushed by one or two thunder flashes, with possibly blank small arms fire from SA80 rifles up to 30 rounds ..
..............................................
2.The Welsh Assembly Government (WAG) have agreed to fund clearance
of the site
Rosalind Britton-Elliott Press Officer - Policy Desk Ministry of Defence : 020 7218 5903
DEPARTMENTAL MINUTE DATED 26 JUNE 2009 CONCERNING THE REPORTING
OF A CONTINGENT LIABILITY FOR THE COSTS ASSOCIATED WITH THE
DEFENCE TRAINING REVIEW
There is also a requirement for MOD to deliver a clear site at St Athan
before construction work can begin.
The Welsh Assembly Government (WAG) have agreed to fund clearance of the site,
with a pre-Financial Close maximum expenditure of £12.5M. WAG is, however, unwilling to
start work prior to Financial Close unless this work is underwritten by
MOD lest the Defence TrainingCollege fails to reach Financial Close.
MORE here http://www.antimetrix.org/
3. Qinetiq consortium denies £1.3bn hole
Government has offered Metrix an additional £44m of state guarantees – in effect promising to pay for preparatory work even if it scraps the deal.
Metrix has called its “fallback” plan “part of good project governance”.
So far the MoD has offered almost £100m of guarantees to Metrix.
more here http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/c38a0078-6990-11de-bc9f-00144feabdc0.html
Showing newest posts with label Metrix. Show older posts
Showing newest posts with label Metrix. Show older posts
Tuesday, 7 July 2009
Saturday, 4 October 2008
The St Athan Defence Training Academy: the future of British education?
latest SGR Newsletter : Autumn *2008*
The St Athan Defence Training Academy:
the future of British education?
Stuart Tannock discusses the disturbing implications of the Ministry of
Defence's new multi-billion pound training academy.
Britain's largest education and technology investment project in recent
memory has been developing quietly under the public's radar. It is time we
paid attention. In January 2007, the Ministry of Defence awarded an £11
billion contract to the private Metrix Consortium (see Box) to build a
massive new training centre for the British armed forces at the village of
St Athan in the Vale of Glamorgan, South Wales.
St Athan, which is expected to become one of the world's biggest military
training establishments when it opens in 2013, will provide specialist
training in engineering, communications and information systems technology
to all three services of the British military. For the first time, it will
centralise in one location military training that is currently done in sites
across the country.
Supporters of St Athan emphasise that the Academy will use state-of-the-art
technology and training methods such as neurolinguistic programming,
e-learning technologies, computer-based training, computer-aided
instruction, emulation, simulation and Web-based systems. St Athan, they
claim, "breathes life into the classroom of the future model which for many
years now has been anticipated by futurologists and thought leaders in the
education community." St Athan represents a "model for training in this
country" that will enable Britain to realise Lord Leitch's vision of gaining
"world leadership in skills."
Why should any of this worry us? There is the fundamental question of why we
should support such a massive outlay of taxpayer money on a military that is
still involved in fighting an illegal war in Iraq – and in a country,
Britain, that already boasts the world's second-largest military budget.
Beyond this, St Athan represents three developments which should be
attracting extended public and political debate, but which instead have
received little attention, beyond a small, local campaign against the
Academy that sprung up in Wales after the project was first announced.
First, St Athan is part of a political project of privatising the British
armed forces, and turns over responsibility for military training to a
private, for-profit consortium. At a time when, across the Atlantic, US
Congress is holding investigations into abuses perpetrated by private
military companies such as Blackwater in Iraq, Britain is rushing headlong
down the same path of military privatisation that the USA has gone down
before. This privatisation, moreover, makes the British government a direct
partner of one of the world's largest and most controversial arms dealers,
Raytheon, which is a core member of the St Athan Metrix Consortium.
Second, St Athan represents a major leap forward in Britain's participation
in the global arms trade. The Metrix business model for maximising profits
at St Athan is to maximise the amount of training it provides, through
serving not just the British military but militaries from around the world.
Between 2002 and 2005, the Ministry of Defence provided military training to
more than 12,000 personnel from 137 countries, many with poor human rights
records. With St Athan, this trade promises only to increase.
Third, St Athan represents another step up in the ongoing militarisation of
British education. The Open University – whose Vice-Chancellor, Brenda
Gourley, claims that universities should be "beacons that reflect the very
best of which the human spirit is capable" – is a direct partner in the
Metrix Consortium. Schools around the Vale of Glamorgan are making plans to
train local youth for jobs at the St Athan Academy, while colleges and
universities across South Wales, which have already been extensively
militarised over the past decade, are exploring new Academy contract
tie-ins. Indeed, one reason why we shouldn't expect Cardiff University, the
premier institution of research and learning in the region, to lead any
critical investigation into the St Athan project is that, in 2005, it signed
a long-term strategic research partnership with QinetiQ, another core member
of the Metrix Consortium.
Promoters of the St Athan Defence Training Academy claim that it
represents the future of education in Britain. Without public
investigation, debate and critique of St Athan and other military
research and education projects across the country, there is a
strong possibility that this will come true.
If it does, it will not be for the better of Britain or anywhere
else in the world.
Action
• To find out more about the issue or to join the Stop the St Athan
Academy campaign, see http://www.cynefinywerin.org.uk or
http://www.no2militaryacademy.com
http://www.antimetrix.org
Monday, 29 September 2008
EDS MOD project costs treble!
New Labour's unlucky 13 IT projects here
Now the Labour Party's conference, which was held in Manchester, is finished, I've looked at the lessons and what went wrong on 13 large, government IT-based projects and programmes:
- Magistrates' courts
- Schools
- Intelligence Services
- GCHQ
- Passport Service
- National Health Service
- Rural Payments Agency
- Criminal Records Bureau
- HM Revenue and Customs
- Department for Work and Pensions
- Department of Health
- Department for Innovation Universities Skills
- Ministry of Defence
The analysis is tied in with an analysis and comment, to be published in Computer Weekly this week, on Labour's track record on managing big IT-based projects and programmes.
Ministry of Defence (EDS are one the METRIX consortium - why would you hire these people?)
The expected costs of the Defence Information Infrastructure (DII) are £7bn - when Parliament was told the costs would be £2.3bn. The National Audit Office in July 2008 found there had been "major delays to the roll out of the first stage of the DII programme. The Department contracted to have 62,800 DII terminals in place at permanent defence sites by the end of July 2007. At the end of April 2008, only 29,000 had been delivered
"Currently the end date for installation of increment one is running 18 months late against the estimated latest completion date at contract signature".
The cost of the project was announced originally at about £2.3bn, but the latest cost estimate is £7bn, though not because of any fault of the main contractor EDS. The National Audit Office found the costs of the DII contracts with the Atlas consortium, led by EDS, are under firm control. The MoD paid EDS less than the supplier had originally expected because of an 18-month delay in the roll-out. The difference in costs is because the MoD was not open and candid when announcing the costs originally. The DII programme "assumed that the roll-out of infrastructure and terminals would be more straightforward than transpired," said the National Audit Office.
Allied article: Why can't new Labour get IT right?
Friday, 30 May 2008
Rsytheon 9 trail and the links with Metrix
The Raytheon 9 trial and the links with Metrix.
The Raytheon 9 trial - lesson for Raytheon in Wales? Mark Steel's article, censored by the Indy lawyers, is below.
Publicising the trial of 9 who occupied Raytheon's office in Derry, to stop their weapons manufacture. Government grants and encouragement to Raytheon to provide jobs (in guidance systems for bombs and missiles) are paralleled by the involvement of Raytheon in the Metrix consortium - to train British and any other 'friendly' soldiers to use the missiles.
Raytheon's involvement in cluster munitions is a symbol - one that Rhodri Morgan has been at pains to deny - of the wider plans to integrate Britain into US military plans (say anti-Metrix campaigners) http://www.antimetrix.org/http://caatcardiff.blogspot.com/
Mark Steel on the Raytheon 9 trial-----------------------------------Hmm, I've written this article for this week's Independent, about a case that should have had masses of publicity but has had hardly any. So there I am feeling smug at redressing the balance and I'm informed this evening that the good people of the law won't let it be printed. So here it is - my illegal article - oo, it must feel like reading LadyChatterley's Lover in 1962.....----------------------------------------------------------------------There's a trial currently taking place in Belfast, that seems to explain plainly how nothing makes any sense. It revolves around a factory owned by the arms company Raytheon, which was set up in Derry soon after the IRA ceasefire.
John Hume, who'd just won the Nobel Peace Prize was among those who announced the opening of the plant, welcoming it as a result of the 'peace dividend' So at last, now the men of violence had agreed to give up their weapons, the area could attract a peaceful company with a turnover of seventeen billion dollars from making weapons.
Clearly, all the while theIRA were decommissioning their arms, most of us misunderstood this process. Because the government reports must have gone "They possess 100 rifles, 10 RPG 7 rockets and a shed full of semtex. If they want to be taken seriously this isn't NEARLY enough; they need Tornado bombers and a car park full of tanks - we can't deal with these amateurs."
For example, when Raytheon won a contract to develop a new missile system for the Israelis in 2006, a spokesman boasted they would "Provide all-weather hit-to-kill performance at a tactical missile price."
Next they might have adverts, that go "Hurry hurry hurry to the Raytheon springtime sale for lasers, tasers and civilian-erasers that will make flesh sizzle through snow, sleet or drizzle WITHOUT making a casualty of your wallet." Despite this, the government in Northern Ireland welcomed the new plant, claiming they'd been assured it wouldn't be making weapons. To which a reasonable response would be 'Right - they're a weapons manufacturer - they supplied weapons to, amongst others, the Indonesian military junta - this might, if you were cynical, suggest they make weapons.
Or what do you THINK they're going to be making - FAIRTRADE FUCKING CUSTARD!' Eventually it was admitted they were making guidance systems for missiles, and so for a while there was a pretence these were being employed for peaceful reasons. Perhaps the systems were being attached to wasps so that a central controlling network could guide them away from picnics.
Continued...http://www.marksteelinfo.com/pt/blog/default.aspx?id=10&t=The-evidence-mounts-that-some-things-are
... Note that John Hume of the Nobel Peace Prize was taken in and welcomed Raytheon to Derry - so our Rhodri is in good company.
The Raytheon 9 trial - lesson for Raytheon in Wales? Mark Steel's article, censored by the Indy lawyers, is below.
Publicising the trial of 9 who occupied Raytheon's office in Derry, to stop their weapons manufacture. Government grants and encouragement to Raytheon to provide jobs (in guidance systems for bombs and missiles) are paralleled by the involvement of Raytheon in the Metrix consortium - to train British and any other 'friendly' soldiers to use the missiles.
Raytheon's involvement in cluster munitions is a symbol - one that Rhodri Morgan has been at pains to deny - of the wider plans to integrate Britain into US military plans (say anti-Metrix campaigners) http://www.antimetrix.org/http://caatcardiff.blogspot.com/
Mark Steel on the Raytheon 9 trial-----------------------------------Hmm, I've written this article for this week's Independent, about a case that should have had masses of publicity but has had hardly any. So there I am feeling smug at redressing the balance and I'm informed this evening that the good people of the law won't let it be printed. So here it is - my illegal article - oo, it must feel like reading LadyChatterley's Lover in 1962.....----------------------------------------------------------------------There's a trial currently taking place in Belfast, that seems to explain plainly how nothing makes any sense. It revolves around a factory owned by the arms company Raytheon, which was set up in Derry soon after the IRA ceasefire.
John Hume, who'd just won the Nobel Peace Prize was among those who announced the opening of the plant, welcoming it as a result of the 'peace dividend' So at last, now the men of violence had agreed to give up their weapons, the area could attract a peaceful company with a turnover of seventeen billion dollars from making weapons.
Clearly, all the while theIRA were decommissioning their arms, most of us misunderstood this process. Because the government reports must have gone "They possess 100 rifles, 10 RPG 7 rockets and a shed full of semtex. If they want to be taken seriously this isn't NEARLY enough; they need Tornado bombers and a car park full of tanks - we can't deal with these amateurs."
For example, when Raytheon won a contract to develop a new missile system for the Israelis in 2006, a spokesman boasted they would "Provide all-weather hit-to-kill performance at a tactical missile price."
Next they might have adverts, that go "Hurry hurry hurry to the Raytheon springtime sale for lasers, tasers and civilian-erasers that will make flesh sizzle through snow, sleet or drizzle WITHOUT making a casualty of your wallet." Despite this, the government in Northern Ireland welcomed the new plant, claiming they'd been assured it wouldn't be making weapons. To which a reasonable response would be 'Right - they're a weapons manufacturer - they supplied weapons to, amongst others, the Indonesian military junta - this might, if you were cynical, suggest they make weapons.
Or what do you THINK they're going to be making - FAIRTRADE FUCKING CUSTARD!' Eventually it was admitted they were making guidance systems for missiles, and so for a while there was a pretence these were being employed for peaceful reasons. Perhaps the systems were being attached to wasps so that a central controlling network could guide them away from picnics.
Continued...http://www.marksteelinfo.com/pt/blog/default.aspx?id=10&t=The-evidence-mounts-that-some-things-are
... Note that John Hume of the Nobel Peace Prize was taken in and welcomed Raytheon to Derry - so our Rhodri is in good company.
Monday, 31 March 2008
WAG spending £4.5 million on St Athan Military Academy 2007-2008
Other freedom of information requests
Disclosure log 1637
A request has been recieved for information relating to the Welsh Assembly Government’s involvement with the Defence Training Academy project at St Athan Ein cyf * Our ref: ATI 2412 21 February 2008
Cofnod ddatgelu 1012
2. What assistance has the Welsh Assembly given to the Metrix Consortium? Read here
2. What assistance has the Welsh Assembly given to the Metrix Consortium? Read here
Freedom of information - for general enquiries contact the Assembly switchboard: Tel: 0845 010 3300e-mail: webmaster@wales.gsi.gov.uk
Freedom of Information OfficerWelsh Assembly GovernmentCathays ParkCardiffCF10 3NQTel: 029 2080 1177 Fax: 029 2082 5137Email:
Freedom of Information OfficerWelsh Assembly GovernmentCathays ParkCardiffCF10 3NQTel: 029 2080 1177 Fax: 029 2082 5137Email:
InformationOfficer@wales.gsi.gov.uk
If you are seeking copies of documents published by the Welsh Assembly Government, please contact the Publications Centre:Tel: 029 2082 3683 Fax: 029 2082 5239E-mail: assembly-publications@wales.gsi.gov.uk
If you are seeking copies of documents published by the Welsh Assembly Government, please contact the Publications Centre:Tel: 029 2082 3683 Fax: 029 2082 5239E-mail: assembly-publications@wales.gsi.gov.uk
Tuesday, 25 March 2008
Teachers condemn MOD recruitment drive
 Mirror.co.uk | Teachers condemn MoD recruitment drives Times Online, UK - The motion defended the rights of teachers “not to take part in activities promoting military recruitment, or which they feel present a partisan view of war ... Teachers attack army over "school recruitment" Teachers to oppose MoD 'propaganda' Pupils 'lured' into armed forces Teachers attack army over "school recruitment" 25 MAR 2008 12:58 GMT 
|
Army recruitment in schools row
Guardian, UK -
Guardian, UK -
See more info on
In the Vale of Glamorgan John Smith boasts of opportuniuty for children to have benefits of St Athan Military academy on the agenda! waht are they then.. Working for arms dealers - Cluster bomb makers - training with mercenaries?
In the Vale of Glamorgan John Smith boasts of opportuniuty for children to have benefits of St Athan Military academy on the agenda! waht are they then.. Working for arms dealers - Cluster bomb makers - training with mercenaries?
Thursday, 1 November 2007
1500 jobs Not going to St Athan
Food for thought at army camp
this is hampshire.net - Winchester,England,UK
The consortium Metrix, which will provide military training, plans to move the Staff and Personnel Training School to St Athan. ...
this is hampshire.net - Winchester,England,UK
The consortium Metrix, which will provide military training, plans to move the Staff and Personnel Training School to St Athan. ...
Saturday, 20 October 2007
Murder Academy Echo editor quits...
Echo editor quits post HoldTheFrontPage.co.uk, 18 Oct 2007...
Editor who boasts that he 'won' St Athan Murder Academy for Wales quits. got it wrong on this one, lets hope the new editor has some 'green' credentials!
Richard has led major campaigns such as that which helped to win the St Athan Metrix contract for South Wales. In May, 2005, he summed up the paper’s direction, saying: "I want to continue the Echo's positioning as the people's paper - representing them, campaigning for the things they care about, challenging authorities on their behalf and being as relevant as possible to them."
The paper sells 50,422 copies Monday-Friday, down in the latest ABCs 9.6 per cent year-on-year.
Editor who boasts that he 'won' St Athan Murder Academy for Wales quits. got it wrong on this one, lets hope the new editor has some 'green' credentials!
Richard has led major campaigns such as that which helped to win the St Athan Metrix contract for South Wales. In May, 2005, he summed up the paper’s direction, saying: "I want to continue the Echo's positioning as the people's paper - representing them, campaigning for the things they care about, challenging authorities on their behalf and being as relevant as possible to them."
The paper sells 50,422 copies Monday-Friday, down in the latest ABCs 9.6 per cent year-on-year.
Sunday, 30 September 2007
Brutalisation of military personnel and the impact on personnel and the local community raises questions
Militarisation
Brutalisation of military personnel and the impact on personnel and the local community raises questions
Brutality is a fact of life for soldiers who are forced to carry on training in full battle dress, with a hat, rifle and pack. In the
have died or been maimed because of negligence or dangerous exercises with live ammunition. Cruelty and bullying may be exacerbated by racial tensions between soldiers of different ethnic origin. In 1992, a former UK Artillery officer claimed he suffered a mental 
breakdown and attempted suicide after continuous abuse by 10 other colleagues, who, in one incident, tore his clothes off and tied him to a cannon at the barracks
Torture
A recent survey revealed that one in 10 women cadets at West Point, the premier
• The capital and running costs of around 1130 new secondary schools
in moderate/high cost areas, with 1,000 pupils each• A real increase in the basic state pension of £11 per week. Is there a negative effect on the economy with out this spending? The sustained decline in defence spending with the end of the Cold War, from the mid 1980s to the end of the 90s, was much greater than any likely reduction that would result from the cancellation of the Trident replacement.
Aggressive Militarism or Security: By Professor J Paul Dunne and Dr Sam Perlo-Freeman 08/04/2007
Thursday, 27 September 2007
Assembly Finance Committee to launch inquiry into Public Private Partnerships
Has this something to do with the massive ppp planned for the military academy at St Athan?
Biggest Public Private Partnerships - PPP - in history
The Defence Training Review Rationalisation Programme will produce one of the biggest Public Private Partnership contracts in UK history. Minister Andrew Davies. it is to be run by the metrix consortium which includes SERCO see below..
Altering the policy to fit after the event and before the planning permissin is granted.
FIN(3)-03-07 : Draft Agenda Thursday, 20 September 2007
FIN(3)-02-07 : Agenda
FIN(3)-02-07 : Paper 3 : Private Finance: Frequently Asked Questions (pdf, 44kb)
FIN(3)-02-07 : Paper 4 : Inquiry into Public Private Partnerships - Terms of Reference
FIN(3)-02-07 : Transcript
FIN(3)-02-07 : Transcript (PDF, 180kb)
PPP has been a disaster for public services, their employees and the tax payer.
SERCO
Newsletter 30 : 4/5 - PUBLIC PRIVATE PARASITES: THE ROTTER'S CLUB
It also runs the country's speed cameras Serco manage Manchester Metrolink under the Public Private Partnership (PPP) that its subsidiary Altram ...
Should the EU's Galileo satellite-navigation be scrapped?
Europe's eight-company, five-nation satellite-navigation consortium, Galileo was concocted as a public-private partnership by the European Union in 2002. The aim was to construct a rival to the American built Global Positioning System (GPS) that was originally developed for the US armed forces but is now available for free use worldwide. GPS is now in everyday use from aviation to private vehicles with sales of GPS equipment exceeding twenty billion dollars a year with about 5 of that being non-civilian use.
As an alternative to America's GPS Galileo was supposed to be accurate to within one metre rather than three. Funding for the project was to be recouped by offering a free GPS-like service, but charge for higher accuracy and other special features. European fears that America could at a whim turn off their GPS system have diminished since Russia and China have launched their own systems , offering increasingly capable alternatives to GPS and modifications made by the US to their GPS system now allows then to offer similar accuracy to that planned by Galileo.
Original scheduled to be operational by 2010 only one of the planned 30 satellites has so far been launched, the official estimated completion date is now 2012 with most analysts saying it will not be ready until 2014. The project was originally costed at $3.4 and is already some $2 billion over budget.
Transport ministers from the EU's 27 member countries are now due to meet to consider Galileo's fate.They have three options: to set new deadlines for the consortium and pour in more money; to make it a fully public-sector initiative and foot the bill; or to shut it down.Which would you vote for?
PDF]
Report on the Inquiry into the use of Public Private Partnerships
File Format: PDF/Adobe AcrobatPublic Private Partnerships by the Committee for Finance and Personnel of the ...... Holywell hospital was condemned by the former Bannside UOM estates ...
Australia: Privatised road tunnel creates havoc in Sydney So-called Public Private Partnerships (also variously known as Private Finance ... While the NSW state opposition and the media have strongly criticised ...
PUBLIC NOT PRIVATE: KEY TO ENDING GLOBAL POVERTYOxfam / WaterAid Press Release, 1 September 2006http://www.oxfam.org.uk/press/releases/public_interest010906.htmClassrooms with teachers, clinics with nurses, running taps and working toilets: these basic public services are key to ending global poverty, according to a new report from Oxfam and WaterAid. And, the agencies say, only governments are in a position to deliver them on the scale needed to transform the lives of millions living in poverty. The report, “In the Public Interest”, calls on developing country governments to devote a greater proportion of their budgets to building these vital services for their citizens - and for rich countries to support their plans with increased, long-term aid commitment.
CHALLENGING TRADE-RELATED HUMAN RIGHTS IN A GATS-COMPATIBLE WORLD*... aid and debt cancellation beyond the much-criticised HIPC (Highly Indebted ... with foreign investment and public private partnerships to be facilitated…………UN’s priorities have shifted from poverty eradication and environmental preservation to achieving sustainable development via “public-private partnerships” or as Kofi Annan calls it, The Global Compact.
How This Old Brit Sees It ...: January 2006 The public-private partnership (PPP) follows the government's decision in ... the US with a scathing article criticising the US Army's performance in Iraq. ...
Between greenery and greenwashEven corporate social responsibility and public private partnerships are failing to create a sustainable solution for Pakistan's acute deforestation By Shaheen Rafi Khan, Ali Shahrukh Pracha, and Nazima Shaheen.The bulk of Pakistan's primary forests are situated in the North-West Frontier Province (NWFP), with over half of the total forested area within the province situated in the Malakand and Hazara divisions. It is common knowledge that Pakistan's forest cover is depleting irreversibly -- both in terms of reduced areal coverage and productivity.
NEWS 2000 Failure to respect basic workers' rights has been repeatedly criticised by ..... The G8 states that it will “Promote public-private partnerships (PPPs)”,
Although the G8 Water Action Plan gives a nod to government responsibilities, the implementation elements of the Plan support an agenda of continued privatisation and market control. The G8 states that it will “Promote public-private partnerships (PPPs)”, thus pressuring developing countries to adopt a model which benefits global corporations, to the detriment and despite the opposition of local populations.
Biggest Public Private Partnerships - PPP - in history
The Defence Training Review Rationalisation Programme will produce one of the biggest Public Private Partnership contracts in UK history. Minister Andrew Davies. it is to be run by the metrix consortium which includes SERCO see below..
Altering the policy to fit after the event and before the planning permissin is granted.
FIN(3)-03-07 : Draft Agenda Thursday, 20 September 2007
FIN(3)-02-07 : Agenda
FIN(3)-02-07 : Paper 3 : Private Finance: Frequently Asked Questions (pdf, 44kb)
FIN(3)-02-07 : Paper 4 : Inquiry into Public Private Partnerships - Terms of Reference
FIN(3)-02-07 : Transcript
FIN(3)-02-07 : Transcript (PDF, 180kb)
PPP has been a disaster for public services, their employees and the tax payer.
SERCO
Newsletter 30 : 4/5 - PUBLIC PRIVATE PARASITES: THE ROTTER'S CLUB
It also runs the country's speed cameras Serco manage Manchester Metrolink under the Public Private Partnership (PPP) that its subsidiary Altram ...
Should the EU's Galileo satellite-navigation be scrapped?
Europe's eight-company, five-nation satellite-navigation consortium, Galileo was concocted as a public-private partnership by the European Union in 2002. The aim was to construct a rival to the American built Global Positioning System (GPS) that was originally developed for the US armed forces but is now available for free use worldwide. GPS is now in everyday use from aviation to private vehicles with sales of GPS equipment exceeding twenty billion dollars a year with about 5 of that being non-civilian use.
As an alternative to America's GPS Galileo was supposed to be accurate to within one metre rather than three. Funding for the project was to be recouped by offering a free GPS-like service, but charge for higher accuracy and other special features. European fears that America could at a whim turn off their GPS system have diminished since Russia and China have launched their own systems , offering increasingly capable alternatives to GPS and modifications made by the US to their GPS system now allows then to offer similar accuracy to that planned by Galileo.
Original scheduled to be operational by 2010 only one of the planned 30 satellites has so far been launched, the official estimated completion date is now 2012 with most analysts saying it will not be ready until 2014. The project was originally costed at $3.4 and is already some $2 billion over budget.
Transport ministers from the EU's 27 member countries are now due to meet to consider Galileo's fate.They have three options: to set new deadlines for the consortium and pour in more money; to make it a fully public-sector initiative and foot the bill; or to shut it down.Which would you vote for?
PDF]
Report on the Inquiry into the use of Public Private Partnerships
File Format: PDF/Adobe AcrobatPublic Private Partnerships by the Committee for Finance and Personnel of the ...... Holywell hospital was condemned by the former Bannside UOM estates ...
Australia: Privatised road tunnel creates havoc in Sydney So-called Public Private Partnerships (also variously known as Private Finance ... While the NSW state opposition and the media have strongly criticised ...
PUBLIC NOT PRIVATE: KEY TO ENDING GLOBAL POVERTYOxfam / WaterAid Press Release, 1 September 2006http://www.oxfam.org.uk/press/releases/public_interest010906.htmClassrooms with teachers, clinics with nurses, running taps and working toilets: these basic public services are key to ending global poverty, according to a new report from Oxfam and WaterAid. And, the agencies say, only governments are in a position to deliver them on the scale needed to transform the lives of millions living in poverty. The report, “In the Public Interest”, calls on developing country governments to devote a greater proportion of their budgets to building these vital services for their citizens - and for rich countries to support their plans with increased, long-term aid commitment.
CHALLENGING TRADE-RELATED HUMAN RIGHTS IN A GATS-COMPATIBLE WORLD*... aid and debt cancellation beyond the much-criticised HIPC (Highly Indebted ... with foreign investment and public private partnerships to be facilitated…………UN’s priorities have shifted from poverty eradication and environmental preservation to achieving sustainable development via “public-private partnerships” or as Kofi Annan calls it, The Global Compact.
How This Old Brit Sees It ...: January 2006 The public-private partnership (PPP) follows the government's decision in ... the US with a scathing article criticising the US Army's performance in Iraq. ...
Between greenery and greenwashEven corporate social responsibility and public private partnerships are failing to create a sustainable solution for Pakistan's acute deforestation By Shaheen Rafi Khan, Ali Shahrukh Pracha, and Nazima Shaheen.The bulk of Pakistan's primary forests are situated in the North-West Frontier Province (NWFP), with over half of the total forested area within the province situated in the Malakand and Hazara divisions. It is common knowledge that Pakistan's forest cover is depleting irreversibly -- both in terms of reduced areal coverage and productivity.
NEWS 2000 Failure to respect basic workers' rights has been repeatedly criticised by ..... The G8 states that it will “Promote public-private partnerships (PPPs)”,
Although the G8 Water Action Plan gives a nod to government responsibilities, the implementation elements of the Plan support an agenda of continued privatisation and market control. The G8 states that it will “Promote public-private partnerships (PPPs)”, thus pressuring developing countries to adopt a model which benefits global corporations, to the detriment and despite the opposition of local populations.
Wednesday, 26 September 2007
Why is the military academy a bad idea?
Find out here ..read this booklet ..
Introductory booklet explaining why the academy is a bad idea (English version, pdf)
Introductory booklet explaining why the Academy is a bad idea (welsh version, pdf)
Friday, 21 September 2007
Raytheon and Metrix?
Metrix is a consortium is made up of AgustaWestland, City andGuilds, Dalkia, EDS, Laing O'Rourke, Land Securities Trillium, Nord Anglia Education, The Open University, QinetiQ, Raytheon, Serco & Sodexho.
Lets look at RAYTHEON “The Consortium according to Raytheon
http://www.raytheon.co.uk/products/dtr.html brings years of experience as architect and provider of the most innovative in training delivery on a global scale in both the civil market and defence. Metrix will deliver a fresh innovative approach and real value for money. Raytheon has delivered Innovative training to over 400,000 students annually in NASA, General Motors and the US military.” (Raytheon Systems Limited, the UK subsidiary of Raytheon Company)
WTA training video [Windows Media Player format] This is the sort of training soon to be available at St Athans?
"The company today continues to lead in innovation, committed to meeting our customers’ needs with a wide range of technical capabilities and resources. This is illustrated by our involvement in the Defence Training Review (DTR) programme, which the Metrix Consortium won in late 2006. DTR alone is an exceptionally important programme for RSL - it means we are going to be further broadening our skills in the training support sector, and it will entail the recruitment of many new employees to work at a new facility to be built at St Athan" Brian McKeon Raytheon Systems Limited Raytheon Company 80 Park Lane London, England +44(
0)1279407300 +44(0)2075695598 brian.mckeon@raytheon.co.uk
Raytheon claims to be 'a global leader in defence and government electronics, business and special mission aviation, as well as in areas of weapons manufacture such as air-air missile systems.' In 2000, the company employed 87,200 employees worldwide and had revenues equalling $16.9 billion.
In February 1991 George Bush travelled to Raytheon’s Andover plant in Massachusetts to thank his ‘friend’, retiring chairman Tom Phillips for building what he called the ‘scud busters’
Raytheon’s official history can be found at http://www.raytheon.com/about/history.htm, where their World War II radars are credited as ‘making the Germans feel for the first time like the hunted not the hunters’; their microwaves ‘ put women on the way to avoiding laborious house chores’ and the Patriot missile is credited with ‘changing the course of the [Gulf] War’!10
For a full list of Raytheon's products see their web page: http://www.raytheon.com/products
Online Sales To take advantage of the opportunities opened up by the Internet, Raytheon, Boeing, Lockheed Martin and BAE Systems agreed to form an online exchange for sales totalling billions of pounds a year. Everything from aircraft and weapons to data services is available on the new exchange. http://www.corporatewatch.org.uk/?lid=138
Silent Guardian™ Protection System
Silent Guardian™ is a revolutionary less-than-lethal directed energy protectionsystem that employs millimeter wave technology to repel individuals or crowds without ... www.raytheon.com/products/silent_guardian/
Lets look at RAYTHEON “The Consortium according to Raytheon
http://www.raytheon.co.uk/products/dtr.html brings years of experience as architect and provider of the most innovative in training delivery on a global scale in both the civil market and defence. Metrix will deliver a fresh innovative approach and real value for money. Raytheon has delivered Innovative training to over 400,000 students annually in NASA, General Motors and the US military.” (Raytheon Systems Limited, the UK subsidiary of Raytheon Company)
WTA training video [Windows Media Player format] This is the sort of training soon to be available at St Athans?
"The company today continues to lead in innovation, committed to meeting our customers’ needs with a wide range of technical capabilities and resources. This is illustrated by our involvement in the Defence Training Review (DTR) programme, which the Metrix Consortium won in late 2006. DTR alone is an exceptionally important programme for RSL - it means we are going to be further broadening our skills in the training support sector, and it will entail the recruitment of many new employees to work at a new facility to be built at St Athan" Brian McKeon Raytheon Systems Limited Raytheon Company 80 Park Lane London, England +44(
0)1279407300 +44(0)2075695598 brian.mckeon@raytheon.co.ukRaytheon is the 4th largest US defence contractor, after Boeing, Lockheed Martin, and Northrop Grumman. The company is often labelled as America's third largest aerospace company. Raytheon is ranked no. 119 in the 2002 FORTUNE 500 list of America's largest corporations.[4] The company is the world's largest missile-maker.
Raytheon claims to be 'a global leader in defence and government electronics, business and special mission aviation, as well as in areas of weapons manufacture such as air-air missile systems.' In 2000, the company employed 87,200 employees worldwide and had revenues equalling $16.9 billion.
In February 1991 George Bush travelled to Raytheon’s Andover plant in Massachusetts to thank his ‘friend’, retiring chairman Tom Phillips for building what he called the ‘scud busters’
Raytheon’s official history can be found at http://www.raytheon.com/about/history.htm, where their World War II radars are credited as ‘making the Germans feel for the first time like the hunted not the hunters’; their microwaves ‘ put women on the way to avoiding laborious house chores’ and the Patriot missile is credited with ‘changing the course of the [Gulf] War’!10
For a full list of Raytheon's products see their web page: http://www.raytheon.com/products
Online Sales To take advantage of the opportunities opened up by the Internet, Raytheon, Boeing, Lockheed Martin and BAE Systems agreed to form an online exchange for sales totalling billions of pounds a year. Everything from aircraft and weapons to data services is available on the new exchange. http://www.corporatewatch.org.uk/?lid=138
Silent Guardian™ Protection System
Silent Guardian™ is a revolutionary less-than-lethal directed energy protectionsystem that employs millimeter wave technology to repel individuals or crowds without ... www.raytheon.com/products/silent_guardian/
Javelin Weapon System Javelin is the world's first one man-portable and employable fire-and-forget medium-range missile system. www.raytheon.com/products/javelin/
Sparrow The Sparrow Missile is a medium-range, all-weather, all-aspect, semi-activeguided missile used in multiple roles by multiple services. www.raytheon.com/products/sparrow/
Phalanx Close-In Weapon System (CIWS)
The Phalanx CIWS advanced radar-controlled gun system provides superiordefense against close-in air and surface threats. www.raytheon.com/products/phalanx/
Raytheon Ares Instrument Unit Avionics (IUA)
www.raytheon.com/products/ares/
Non Line of Sight – Launch System (NLOS-LS) The Non Line of Sight –
Launch System (NLOS-LS) is a family of artillery missiles fired from a vertical launcher that can be deployed by ground or air assets throughout ... www.raytheon.com/products/nlos_ls/
The NetFires LLC is a partnership between Raytheon and Lockheed Martin.
Rolling Airframe Missile (RAM) Guided Missile System
The Rolling Airframe Missile (RAM) Guided Missile Weapon Systemis the world's most modern ship self-defense weapon. www.raytheon.com/products/ram/
TOW Family TOW 2 (Tube-launched, Optically-tracked, Wire-guided) Weapon System, with the multi-mission TOW 2A, TOW 2B, TOW 2B Aero, and TOW Bunker Buster missiles. www.raytheon.com/products/tow_family/
AIM-9M Sidewinder The AIM-9M is a long term performer in the Sidewinder family of missiles. www.raytheon.com/products/aim_9m/
AGM-65 Maverick Missile The Maverick AGM-65 family of missiles is the versatile, precision strike missile of choice for the US Air Force, Marine Corps, Navy and dozens of international ... www.raytheon.com/products/agm_65/
more info..UK .... FYLINGDALES
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