CND Cymru

Last October we learned of the indefinite delay of ‘package 2’ of the planned St. Athan Military Training Academy and asked ‘how many more wheels will have to be lost off this trundling white elephant before politicians of Wales’ four main parties realise that the whole project is a terrible mistake?’. Who would have thought that by June the elephant would laying on the ground waving its legs in the air? Some are guessing that the whole caboodle is actually grinding to a halt.

At least £11 billion of taxpayers money is about to be spent in the building and running of a publicly financed privately run (PFI) Military Academy at St. Athan in the Vale of Glamorgan. The core members of the Metrix consortium chosen to build and run the academy include arms company Raytheon, as well as Serco and QinetiQ along with the OU. The academy will train not only British service personnel, but those from any regime or private military company that can fork out the ready cash.

Risks

Leaked documents from a recent meeting of the Defence Training Review Executive Board reveal that the Academy could now be delayed by 8 years. The documents also highlight concerns about potentially catastrophic risks for front line soldiers. The claimed ‘savings’ of the PFI deal of £3 billion over 25 years are now revealed as being only £400 million over 30 years; insignificant in terms of the overall defence budget. Robert O’Harney, Cosford spokesman for the Public & Commercial Services PCS Union, claims that the Ministry of Defence is getting cold feet about the whole project. He said recently: ‘From what we are hearing, it’s all hanging in the balance.’

Doubts

Hopes are also rising in the South of England that the under-threat HMS Sultan in Gosport could be offered a stay of execution. It is here that submariners are trained in operating and maintaining submarines as well as other military vessels. Last year ministers announced that Sultan would shut by 2017 with all training moved to St Athan. Now, that date has been moved to at least until 2025. The MoD are saying that no decision has yet been made. Portsmouth South MP Mike Hancock, a member of the Defence Select Committee said that the news raised doubts about the St Athan project, ‘I think the St Athan scheme is unlikely to happen because it is very expensive’, he said ‘I have doubts about the project and I always have.’

Egg

Mr O’Harney said ‘I believe the risks of privatisation are intolerable and it would not surprise me if ministers pulled the plug on this, leaving a lot of people with egg on their faces.’

News of the leaked documents, published in ‘Private Eye’ magazine says that they list ‘15 significant risks’ including concerns about the consortium’s ‘lack of military ethos’ and that trainees will leave ‘ill-prepared for service in operational commands’.

Alternatives

Instead of wasting time and money pursuing even more crazy military solutions to international problems, our elected representatives should be focussing on addressing the major environmental changes our world faces. Why can’t we in Wales be at the forefront of training in non-violent conflict resolution, in preventing violence at home and abroad? Why are public services in Wales facing closure when there is money to spend on war preparations?

Right Wales

It seems now that the MPs and AMs who unanimously supported the Military Academy at St Athan can only imagine a future where international conflict is solved by violence, accept the widespread death and maiming, misery and suffering caused to innocent people by militarism and ignore the permanent environmental damage caused by wars and conflict. On this issue they have done nothing to deliver the Wales that people in this country want - a Wales that honestly addresses global warming and other environmental problems, champions human rights, teaches our children that violence solves nothing, does not invest in the arms trade, encourages valuable, long term employment and delivers decent public services.

An end to it?

All credit to clear sighted campaigners against the whole Metrix academy project. When the elephant is finally buried, we will expect our AMs and MPs never again to be blinded by the smoke and mirrors and coerced into rubber stamping such a morally bankrupt ‘jobs at any price’ decision.

A fitting mausoleum for the St Athan white elephant might well be the £77 million ‘super hangar’ built and abandoned at RAF St Athan earlier this century.

The campaign will continue until the whole war mongers’ dream is put to rest.

* See www.no2militaryacademy.com or www.cynefinywerin.org for how to get involved and to sign the petition. Also see www.gaggedanarchist.tk

* A pamphlet ‘St. Athan Defence Training Academy and the Future of Wales’ by Stuart Tannock is available from CND Cymru or downloadable from the Cynefin y Werin website.

* The ‘Say No to Military Academy’ campaign meets regularly in Cardiff please contact Anne Greagsby for more information: t: 02920 626 287

m: 07817513610 e: Annegre@aol.com

*Write to your AMs and MP let them know what you think. Keep the issue in the news!