Concorde was the flying Brexit: a different era but the same mistakes

Nationalistic fantasies about future export strengths, an ill-informed public debate and political deceit all masked the economic disaster that was ConcordeThe idea that we now live in an age of ‘post-truth’ implies that once-upon-a-time politics was guided by objective reality. Clearly, this is nonsense. We shouldn’t mistake a period in which the media and political establishment offered more coherent stories for a time when politics was truthful. In the recent past, politics could be astonishing ly dishonest, especially when it came to supporting national machines. Concorde, the fastest lame duck ever built, was a flying Brexit. The political establishment privately despaired about its costs, whilst knowingly pretending that the project would improve Britain’s place in the world.Few politicians actually believed in the Concorde project. It was accepted inside Whitehall that the scheme would be an economic disaster. After Harold Wilson came to power in 1964, the Anglo-French supersonic airliner only survived because the government was concerned that unilaterally cancelling the project would lead the French to sue them for more than it would cost to continue to develop the machine.Continue reading...
Source: Guardian Unlimited Science - Category: Science Authors: Tags: Science EU referendum and Brexit Technology Politics Concorde Source Type: news