Three days on and I am still thinking about the luncay of the decision.
We end up with a carrier we don't need, dont want, and will never use, and to pay for it we are gettign rid of a capbility that we must have, that other nations are envious of, and that we will use in many ways.
I know this icon has been used a lot in this thread but
To me the sensible thing would have been to renegotiate with BAE along the lines of... "if we will cancel one carrier, we will pay the penalty clauses, but we want this extra money to go towards the Nimrod in service support for the next 25 years"