purplecthulhu

The documents dredged up by the particle physicists under the FOIA are available here.

From these it seems clear that DIUS were told the implications of the funding settlement we were given. This is described as 'retrenchment' with such implications as:

'⎯ Facility operations at significantly reduced level until end of CSR period
⎯Severely constrained exploitation grants until end of CSR period'

among other doom laden prophecies that are now coming to pass.

It would seem that STFC are in fact in the clear. They may have been implementing cuts in an insensitive way and without consultation, but they don't seem to have screwed up in what they asked for. Blame is squarely at the door of DIUS, though quite where in DIUS the blood sacrifice of physics was made is still unclear. Their minister certainly flounders around whenever he's questioned about the subject, suggesting he's not been properly briefed by his advisors.