It should be noted that CAA legal counsel Kate Staples completed tertiary education, unless she paid someone to sit her exams for her.
CAA Safety Director Rob Bishton probably obtained enough A Levels to blag his way onto the pilot-training programme of the first of the several bucketshop airlines that employed him before he was stopped from endangering planeloads of Ibiza-bound pillsheads and African peasants and given desk jobs.
After being marched out of EasyJet's offices between two security men, he spent some time in Africa before seeking refuge in quangoland.
However, Staples and Bishton are equally thick, proving that paper qualifications are not proof of intellectual functionality.
As for Phillip Clark, 'Business Manager' and spokesman for Bishton and CEO Richard Moriarty, he says and writes what he is told to write. Because we all know what happens to CAA officials who do not toe the line. But he seems just as thick.
And they all seem to believe that readers will take their assertions at face value.
From: BPA Watch <bpawatch@gmail.com>
Date: Sun, 23 May 2021 at 09:33
Subject: Re: CAA members
To: Kate Staples <Kate.Staples@caa.co.uk>
Dear Mr Canard
My colleague Philip Clarke has shared with me your email of 14 May 2021. In that email you wrote:
I hope this finds you well. A new report in the possession of the Parachute Training Organisation Association Ltd –– which is suing your regulator BPA Ltd trading as British Skydiving –– asks if BPA Ltd COO Tony Butler is a ghost director of the Civil Aviation Authority. Given the obvious and well-documented influence of Mr Butler on CAA executive decisions in relation to parachuting, do your bosses Messrs Moriarty and Bishton agree with this thesis? Would this explain their unquestioning defence of Mr Butler and the monopoly over which he presides with the equally well documented support of the CAA?
The CAA website provides details of the membership of the CAA: CAA board and staff | UK Civil Aviation Authority. Non-executive members, including the Chair, are appointed by the Secretary of State for Transport. The Chief Executive is appointed by the Chair, subject to the approval of the Secretary of State, and other executive members are appointed by the Chief Executive with the approval of a non-executive member.
As you will see from the above, Mr Butler is not a member of the CAA. Nor is Mr Butler a ghost director of the CAA. Moreover, he does not and cannot wield the sort of influence that you describe in your email.
Given that the position is absolutely clear the CAA will not respond to any further correspondence of this nature.
Yours sincerely
Kate Staples
General Counsel and Secretary to the Civil Aviation Authority
Tel: 0330 138 3053
My pronouns are: she/her
From: BPA Watch <bpawatch@gmail.com>
Date: Fri, 14 May 2021 at 13:35
Subject: CAA Ghost Directors
To: Clarke Philip <Philip.Clarke@caa.co.uk>
Cc: <richard.moriarty@caa.co.uk>, Rob Bishton <Rob.Bishton@caa.co.uk>Dear Mr Clarke,I hope this finds you well. A new report in the possession of the Parachute Training Organisation Association Ltd –– which is suing your regulator BPA Ltd trading as British Skydiving –– asks if BPA Ltd COO Tony Butler is a ghost director of the Civil Aviation Authority. Given the obvious and well-documented influence of Mr Butler on CAA executive decisions in relation to parachuting, do your bosses Messrs Moriarty and Bishton agree with this thesis? Would this explain their unquestioning defence of Mr Butler and the monopoly over which he presides with the equally well documented support of the CAA?Regards,Don Canard
