A voyage to the bottom of the Internet yielded an actual link to the story Orac cited above:
Gulf Times ? Qatar?s top-selling English daily newspaper - Britain/Ireland
Cameron had been asked by his defence department, and the Navy in particular, to say that Britain would like to buy the limited Short Take Off Vertical Landing version of the new F-35 Joint Strike Fighter for its two new aircraft carriers...
With the spiralling cost of the catapult apparatus, the Navy switched back to the Stovl or “jump jet version” — grandson of the Harrier — for the new plane. Although the plane is very limited in range and payload, it might enable the Navy to afford both carriers to be fully equipped.
This was to be explained to President Obama. However, voices from Washington suggest that the president said this was no option at all...
It is being circulated that the US is now likely to order only four squadrons of the jump-jet “B” version for the US Marine Corps. Since this would be a maximum of about 65 planes, it is now thought in Washington that this is all a preliminary to cancelling the “B” version altogether.
Defence Secretary Philip Hammond appears to have been asked by Cameron “to go through the figures again” with a view to buying the more expensive “B” F-35 and more expensive carrier with “cats and traps” for the aircraft. No announcement is expected before Easter.
OK, this may be full of
. But this is not the work of the guy who covers TOWIE the other four days a week:
Full profile | guardian.co.uk
Curiouser and curiouser.