Don't forget that after the "Sandys Storm" of ?1957, there was little left for the RAF for future attack work, so they were pretty well bound to "stick with the TSR2" ... Mr. Sandys felt that missiles would take over all manned aircraft attack and defence roles, under the influence of the Scientific Advice of Mr. Solly Zuckermann, whose scientific expertise had nothing to do with warfare, but had gained the confidence of Mr. Churchill during the war (wasn't it Mr. Z's advisers who, before the V2, insisted that liquid fuel rockets were impracticable?) ...
Mr. Wilson was certainly anti-TSR2, possibly because of the nuclear role, but whatever the "spin", getting "owt for nowt" seems to be traditional British Government policy. And if they suddenly find that "nowt" is what they've got when they need "summat", they think that rushing to Uncle Sam will get them off their self-imposed hook, though in this case, Blackburn's Bulgemaster was deemed to be "adequate", and Lord Mountbatten's voice was loudest in the White Halls.
Oh, dear, oh dear ... Are we going round this sort of thing again ???
