VIRGIN Orbit's launch from Spaceport Cornwall was the subject of questions at a recent Cornwall Council full meeting.

Back in January, the Branson vanity project took flight when it lifted off from Spaceport Cornwall in Newquay, marking the company's first European launch.

Unfortunately, the mission's objective was brought crashing back down to earth after an 'anomaly' in the rocket's system. 

Questions surrounding the funding of the launch were asked of Conservative Cabinet member Louis Gardner by independant councillor Julian German who was told that “Virgin Orbit were not paid by this council to do the first launch.”

However, it was revealed that Cornwall Council does have a contract with Richard Branson's company worth over £1,000,000.

Describing the agreement as 'complex,' Cllr Gardner went on to explain: "We do have a commercial agreement with Virgin and we pay for some things and Virgin pays for things in return.

"What we have paid Virgin for is assistance in establishing the licence for the Spaceport. They helped us with the licensing and helped with some of the ground operations."

What shape this 'assistance' came in, which Cornwall Council is paying for, remains unknown, most likely due to the complexity of the arrangement that we mere mortals couldn't possibly understand...

What doesn't float this Skipper's boat is the idea that more details as to what's being paid for with public money would not only be left out, but that it would be done so seemingly because the superior intellects at Cornwall Council don't believe it's something the public could grasp.

Do they really think these contracts are SO complex that the people of Cornwall, many of whom run their own businesses and deal with contracts regularly, wouldn't be able to understand them?

I was also left lamenting the death of a time when straight questions got straight answers.

Is it possible that Cllr Gardner has been reading the ghost-written books of America's 45th President to the point where he believes that this kind of swerving is not only reasonable, but an acceptable way for a person in a position of power to act?

Whatever happened to local politicians that saw themselves as accountable to the electorate?

Are we all now ruled over by politicians whose only ambitions are to cling on the positions of privilage they find themselves in?

Are these the sort of tactics we should come to expect from those we elect into power?

The people of Cornwall deserve leaders with integrity, not meek 'managers' with aspirations that stretch no further than the ends of their own noses.