ORAC,
I very much agree that this looks like another excuse for delay - but the picture has been so cloudy now for so long that this piece, which relies heavily on French statements, does not do much to clarify things.
My take - the probable cost of UK CVF is still bigger than anything the Treasury wants to accept, and Drayson has been told to come up with a solution, using the French angle if possible. Meanwhile, BAES and VT, having been offered the CVF programme as the price for merging to form the UK 'Shipco' to build them, is waiting on the sidelines to see what he comes up with.
The nightmare scenario (for those of us who believe that SDR98 was right and CVF is the way to go) is that Drayson tries a bluff on BAES (accept giving workshare to the French or else) and BAES call it (OK, we're out, get the French to build them).
At that point, UK Government has a ready made excuse to can the project, because the real cost of the French building them would be - well, imagine nay number and double it.
Pessimistic? Only a bit.