Your tax money at work

[Captain Colonial]

PM's plane to be rebranded at cost of £900,000

 

This has long been a BoJo bugbear.  When he was Foreign Secretary, he lobbied for his own personal aircraft as he didn’t like having to get in the queue to use this one and hated the fact it was grey.  Now that he’s PM, he’s pushing through a repaint.

 

Saying that it’s not good enough in RAF livery is a bit of a smack in the face to them, plus does anyone think important outsiders will think better of us because of a plane painted like the flag?  Is this really a good use of public money in the current situation, a hole we’ll be climbing out of for another decade?  Good idea or vanity project?

 

He’ll also need money to fix the Jag as well...  

[shrops-paul]

If I was pm I’d want my plane to look cool as well. He needs more carbon fibre too. 

[Hemsley]

Ignoring for the moment the benefits of a respray, this seems remarkably expensive. Anyone know why it is so costly? Is it some sort of 2-part special paint? Do they have to put the whole plane inside a big oven to cook it? Do they use a 1” brush?

[shrops-paul]

It will be aluminium so I expect it’s more than just a new coat of Dulux. 

[Man On The Clapham Omnibus]

It is also used by the Royal Family because the government of the day scrapped the Royal Yacht. 

[jeff oakley]

I have no problem with this. We are not a two bob country and when you weigh in security and that many flights taken seats are sold to press etc then it is not too extravagant.

 

Remember this was Tony Blair's idea, dubbed Blair Force One, to have a prime ministerial plane which raised no eyebrows then.

 

I want us to be seen as a world power and I bet this is all rolled into a regular refit rather than a whim of fancy so to make an entrance showing the union Jack Colour is a good thing in my mind.

 

Opposition politicians will always sight better things to spend money on and are happy to fund half baked ideas overseas as part of international aid rather than promote the UK

[Captain Colonial]

I’ve got no issue with the plane.  It’s an inevitable requirement of the job to have a plane.  I’m not convinced it’s good value for money when the plane is already painted.  It could have waited until the plane actually needed the respray.
 

Maybe he can get the Jag painted to match after it’s repaired if he’s so keen on it. 😄 

[Robin Parker (Red Spider) - Yorkshire AO]

Won't it look a bit tacky painted like the union flag?

[Captain Colonial]

1 minute ago, Robin (Red Spider) - Yorkshire AO said:

Won't it look a bit tacky painted like the union flag?

Great... now I’ve got an image in my head of Boris Johnson as Austin Powers... 

[Steve (sdh2903)]

The paint job alone won't be 900k. Normally for an a330 size aircraft your more like 150k for a full paint. Id imagine the 900k is the total cost for its maintenance check and the paint.

 

Some places are reporting that its only the tail and aft section thats getting painted. In which case it will be even less for the paint job.

[Captain Colonial]

I was thinking the same.  900k to paint the plane?  I wonder if 750k of it is going towards a luxury interior.

[Steve (sdh2903)]

Seems yesterday was reported at 100k and today its 900k?

[Hemsley]

ah, creative journalism or fake news again.

[jeff oakley]

Makes a good tale to again criticise the government, I would bet this was planned anyway way before the covid hit us.

 

The headline is out there and it will stick for a while.

[Blatman]

5 hours ago, Captain Colonial said:

Is this really a good use of public money in the current situation, a hole we’ll be climbing out of for another decade?

 

If 900K would get us out the hole then OK. But it's a drop in an ocean that ain't done filling yet.

And I tend to agree this wasn't planned yesterday.

I wonder what tactical capabilities the plane has? I'm betting it's not just "paint"...