Cosy Poison Embrace of Qinetiq by Welsh political leaders

Qinetiq slammed over sell off bonaza

But Despite this greed of the highest order, Welsh politicians act as if they could not care less. In January 2007, the QinetiQ-led Metrix Consortium won what is to be the largest investment in Welsh history – a £16 billion contract to build a private military training academy at St Athan, in the Vale of Glamorgan. The project would thrust Wales to the forefront of the global arms trade, since the business model at the heart of the St Athan Academy is to maximise profits by providing training not just to the British Armed Forces, but to militaries from all over the worldPrivatisation of the military, many fear, as is the case in other sectors, can undermine public accountability and erode ideas of public service and the public good, while achieving little if anything in the way of cost savings.

“The only winners in the privatisation of defence training,” says Mark Serwotka, General Secretary of the Public and Commercial Services Union, “are the shareholders of the Metrix Consortium.”

Jill Evans, Plaid MEP, has recently raised concerns about the St Athan Defence Training Academy, particularly because of the Consortium members behind the project, which include other arms companies like Raytheon.

This cosy embrace of QinetiQ by Welsh political leaders over the past few years is puzzling, to say the least, given the country’s supposed commitment to principles of social justice and fairness, good governance, sustainable development and responsible international citizenship.

We are calling for a public debate about the companies involved in the Metrix consortium and we seek assurances that they are not involved in corruption or the trade of unethical weapons like cluster bombs and depleted uranium.

QinetiQ also helps Wales manage and market its new UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle) centre at Parc Aberporth – a facility the government has said is a key part of its plans for the regeneration of Cardigan and West Wales. Welsh Assembly Members and Ministers, in welcoming QinetiQ to Parc Aberporth, have spoken glowingly of its “vast expertise” and “international reputation.

PCS View
Recently the MoD won awards at a PFI ceremony for privatising more functions than any other Civil Service department. This is a national scandal. Companies like QinetiQ were flogged off cheap, and now intend to make vast profits from delivering military training. QinetiQ will squeeze every penny out of the MoD that it can, while delivering training where quality is sacrificed to making profits for its shareholders.

This does not benefit the people of South Wales or our service personnel. It benefits QinetiQ, and that's all they're interested in. With recent reports of the breakdown of the military covenant, PCS asks is privatising defence training going to make things better? Our answer is an uneqivocal 'No!'

Watchdog raps mod over Qinetiq sell-off bonanza Register, UK - By Lewis Page → More by this author Analysis UK gov watchdog the National Audit Office (NAO) has released a damning report into the privatisation of the ..
..............In effect, then, the MoD still pays to fix up its old test ranges. It does so by borrowing the money from the private sector and then repaying over decades. At the same time it loses ownership of the assets it is paying to fix up............
This is a bit like being an Irish tenant of a rack-renting English landlord before the Republic became independent, paying for any necessary improvements of property you rent at extortionate terms......


Treasury mugged itself BBC News,
A battalion of former military bigwigs last night accused Gordon Brown of being tight-fisted on Britain’s defence. Which adds resonance to today’s judgement ...

Green party motion on St Athan

Saturday 1st December, Wales GreenParty will be debating the following motion:

Motion C2 - Proposed Military Academy at St Athan Wales Green Party hereby adopts a policy of opposition to the proposed Military Training Academy atSt Athan. The proposed Military Academy would be a privately run facility operated bythe Metrix Consortium, which includes some of the world's most powerful arms investors, including Carlyle Corporation, Quiniteq and Raytheon. Its effect upon the social, economic and educational infrastructure of South East Wales would be overwhelming and the educational establishments and places ofemployment in the region would find themselves called upon to serve theinterests of the Academy above all other considerations.The acceptance by the Welsh Assembly Government of the proposal to locatethe Military Academy in Wales indicates a commitment to militarism whichtotally contradicts their constitutional commitment to sustainabledevelopment, plus commitments to responsible international citizenship and peace and justice.

Wales Green Party calls upon the Welsh Assembly Government to withdraw itssupport for the proposal to locate the Academy at St Athan.This conference instructs the Spokesperson and Deputy Spokesperson of Wales Green Party to write to First Minister Rhodri Morgan requesting that the petition the UK Government to reverse the decision to site this Academy in Wales.

Yes says Ffred to arms dealers in wales

Arfon Peace and Justice Group

MEETING WITH LOCAL A.M. TO OPPOSE THE MILITARY ACADEMY

Members of a local group have met with their Assembly Member to express their opposition to the biggest military investment in the history of Wales.Arfon Peace and Justice group meet with Alun Ffred Jones AM on Friday, November 9, to discuss the St Athan Military Academy in South Wales. The idea for the meeting came from a workshop on the development at the All Wales Peace Festival in Caernarfon in September.Members of the group - Sioned Huws of Waunfawr, Mair Jones of Caernarfon, Anna Jane Evans from Bangor and Ben Gregory from Penygroes - expressed their concerns to Mr Jones about the Academy, and public money from the National Assembly being used to support it. "With the worst financial settle for the Assembly in a decade from Westminster, and with Cyngor Gwynedd suffering the same thing from the National Assembly, we made the point that it is a total waste of public money to support the Academy," said Ben Gregory on behalf of the group."

The UK government is talking about spending £16 billion on attracting 4,000 jobs from other places in the UK to St Athans on the Vale of Glamorgan," said Ben. "That's £4 million for every job. It shows once again the gap between the investment in North and South Wales. The molney could go to creatng more jobs in the North, supporting the public sector, to keeping our schools open, instead of giving the money to a private company to spend on militarism."The meeting with Alun Ffred Jones is one of a series with Assembly members to lobby them on preventing the National Assembly giving money to the Academy.

"The Academy raises questions which are important to us all, about what sort of economy we want to see in Wales, and what are the priorities of the National Assembly," said Ben. "We have called on Plaid Cymru, as part of the government, to refuse to hand over any Assembly money to the project.The Arfon Peace and Justice Group intends to organise a public meeting in the near future in the county on the Academy and Militarism.

St Athan Academy project held up by cost cutting exercise

Hain moves fast to lift gloom over academy ic Wales, United Kingdom - 6 hours agoPOLITICIANS today tried to reassure people the vast majority of a £14bn military training academy will go ahead as planned. Work on the defence facility for ...

£14bn defence project held up by cost-cutting exercise
ic Wales, United Kingdom -PART of a huge £14bn defence training project earmarked for South Wales is being delayed as the MoD seeks ways to keep the costs down. ...

Job hope with MoD centre go-aheadBBC News,
Building work on an armed forces training centre in the Vale of Glamorgan should start in 2009, bringing up to 5000 jobs. The Ministry of Defence (MoD) has ...

Delay not bad news says RhodriDaily Post,

RHODRI Morgan yesterday said that he remained hopeful about a lucrative defence training contract for a Wales base after it emerged part of it had been ...

Support for St Athans campaign

SWP block Stop the War support for St Athans campaign By permanentrevolution
both the SWP and its partners in the UK leadership of STW, the CPB (Communist Party of Britain), will oppose the coalition taking up the fight against the St Athan super-academy. ...Cardiff Permanent Revolution - http://cardiffpr.wordpress.com