Thread by @pmdfoster

THIS story is going to run and run. Top Beis civil servant formally warns of "marginal" case for UK decision to blow £500m on failed OneWeb satellite company - Cummings is said to love the idea; top civil servants are privately scathing. /1

on.ft.com/32IgDYX

The UK got shut out of Gallileo (EU answer to US's GPS) as a result of #brexit but this purchase, per insiders, fits No 10 desire to embrace "innovation and risk" but not so much interest in embracing evidence.

Interesting that UK Space Agency also not keen./2

I suspect this is going to become a litmus test for the government's 'outside-the-box Apollo 19 innovation approach' - or spending £500m because a bunch of Special Advisers think it's a cool idea - depending on how you choose to view it. Pressure to make it work will be huge/3

There are already plenty of sceptics.

"We've bought the wrong satellites" @bleddb

"looks like nationalism trumping solid industrial policy.” Giles Thorne @Jefferies /4

theguardian.com/science/2020/j…

@bleddb @Jefferies It's tempting to draw parallels with the innovative part of the Ventilator Challenge competition which didn't win much favour with experts, to put it kindly, (but the government will defend til the day it dies!) /5

@bleddb @Jefferies Am not arguing that OneWebb fits directly into that category, but I suspect the success/failure of OneWebb will become a barometer for the quality of this government's decision making and due diligence processes. /6

@bleddb @Jefferies Although even it it fails, perhaps the think is that merely having tried is enough to show that Boris's Britannia tried "to boldly go" where other governments had not gone before.

In the post-modern politics of propaganda, perhaps intention is all. ENDS