21/09/2010

Kirsty Williams St Athan dinner for Metrix

Kirsty Williams - enjoying power
Kirsty as leader of the Welsh LibDems enjoyed the Conference limelight.

Taking up the message "let's enjoy power", Kirsty sponsored a dinner for Metrix (alias Sodexo-Qinetiq) to introduce them to key LibDems.   Danny Alexander and Nick Harvey were on the initial invitation list, just the Ministers who are to take a decision on the £14 billion project.  The dinner list that Metrix wanted was amazingly brazen:

But the list leaked out, none of the people in government were allowed to attend.  Can we hope the nosh was enjoyed, courtesy of Metrix, though by lesser politicians

What sort of values has Kirsty Williams who is enjoying the Conference limelight? But sponsoring a dinner for Metrix (alias Sodexo-Qinetiq) to give them access to Danny Alexander and Nick Harvey, just the Ministers who are to take a decision on the St Athan Metrix PFI for military training @ £14 billion.Isn't Kirsty coy about her dinner invitees, replete with Lib-Dems enjoying power:
# Danny Alexander MP + Julia Goldsworthy (Spad)
# Nick Harvey MP
# Jenny Willott MP
# James McGrory and Polly MacKenzie (No 10 Policy Unit)
# Chris Saunders (Spad to Nick Clegg).
Kirsty Williams should have listened to Vince Cable now silenced.
Kirsty Williams spech to Lib Dem conf "I will always speak up for Wales and I will always speak up for my beliefs and my values. Now, he may be a saint, but when Vince Cable, before the election, decided to commit our party to cutting the proposed military college at St Athan in South Wales, he soon learnt of my determination to fight for the best deal for Wales and the best defence for the UK .
For that project has been identified by the MoD’s strategic defence review as critical to our military capability. And when we know that money is tight, we Liberal Democrats understand that it is the cancelation of Trident that will make projects like St Athan possible. That is an argument that I know we are winning in the country and it is one we must win in Government. "

Has Kirsty read that Peter Luff, minister for defence support and technology, said it was ‘clear that mistakes in defence procurement have been made in the past’ but the current government would ensure future contracts were better managed and provided better value for money. They must take another look at the finances and flawed business for the St athan PFI where costs have soared to £14bn. Yes - MoD ‘did not understand costs of PFI deal’ Ministry of Defence officials did not understand the costs involved when they launched their largest Private Finance Initiative project, a damning report by the Public Accounts Committee has found. Have we the same officals working on St Athan and the Metrix deal?
They also used a defective comparison with public funding for the £10.5bn future strategic tanker aircraft (FSTA) project – which provides in-air refuelling for military aircraft. The deal took nine years to negotiate and failed to provide value for money. The 27-year contract was signed in 2008 with the Air Tanker consortium, which owns the refuelling aircraft and makes them available as needed.

When will you meet us Kirsty?

Private Eye has more news of the Metrix PR assault  this week and we say hello to Citigate another PR firm joining the offensive who have worked with lead partner Qinitiq who ripped off the taxpayer. See also

The truth from Vince Cable before he was silenced!
BBC NEWS Cable says scrap defence .15 Sep 2009 ... Vince Cable said the £13bn project was too costly ... thousands of jobs in south Wales should be scrapped, the Liberal Democrat Treasury spokesman has said. Dr Vince Cable MP said the £13bn to set up the St Athan project ...
 Lib Dem Treasury spokesman Vince Cable has identified the Training College, due to open in St Athan in 2014, as one project that should be ...

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Any chance of putting up a link to the Private Eye Kirsty Williams story as you have done in the past?