"TudorHgh" wrote in message
...


Shame it won't reach 200. Shall we have a sweepstake?

I'll start the ball rolling and offer a generous 172. The end
comes
when no part of the MO(1) remains a central government-
funded and controlled(2) service.

Too pessimistic! The present orthodoxy will not last for
ever. Look,
at the non-headline stuff, what is happening on the railways.
Eventually we
will have BR back, in effect. So with the Met Office. A vague,
optimistic
feeling? Of course it is. But I would put very little money on
172. More
like "200". What odds are you offering, Philip?

No odds, Tudor ... it's a sweep. Winner takes all.
My tongue, of course, was firmly (if only half) in cheek.
Nevertheless I see no argument for a meteorological
service of the future to be a nationalised one. Already
there are practically no observers in government service,
the number of forecasters is diminishing and will continue
so to do ... I wonder what the ratio of paperclip-counters
to 4B-wielders is now? Investment in research will become
increasingly hard to justify as return per research-pound
decreases, etc, etc, etc.

Philip Eden