Tivyside | Archive | 2006 | January | 24
From the archive, first published Tuesday 24th Jan 2006.
In all the controversy featured in your pages surrounding the QinetiQ developments at Aberporth, one aspect has been ignored - understandably perhaps since our local pre- occupations may not allow us a focus on the 'big picture' that is of interest to the wider world.
To quote from the Independent On Sunday of January 15, "Dame Pauline Neville-Jones, who last week became a policy adviser to David Cameron...is set to make around £400,000 from the controversial flotation of defence research group QinetiQ." The £1.1bn listing of the former MOD establishment was recently approved by government, with QinetiQ soon to join the market. MPs have protested the deal because of the 34% stake in the company sold to US venture capitalist Carlyle Group for just £42m in 2002, at the same time as Dame Pauline's acquisition.
If Cameron should succeed in forming a government at the next election, will it be Tory policy to pursue his version of 'redistributive economics' by suitably reimbursing the local farmers and others whose land at Aberporth was originally 'borrowed' by the state in the 1940s?
I think we should be told.
© Newsquest Media Group 2008