Violet
"put some warheads on a Storm Shadow, or buy into ASMP-A. But dump Trident. Dump the missiles. Dump the boats. Dump the bases."
Very tempting, but it always smacks of too many years of peace.
When the UK needs its deterent it will be because all else has failed. Either we face a nuclear threat to these islands or we have been defeated in a conventional war and are about to be invaded. In this second scenario all the platforms capable of launching a cruise based nuke will either be wrecks on the ocean floor or crumpled wreckage littering a battlefield somewhere.
Whilst I believe the RAF should get back into strategic bombing, with nukes as an option, the ultimate deterent continues to be SSBN's until another technological revolution overtakes and replaces them.