The French are indeed doing it but at what cost to the ship, the crew and the morale. The last pictures I saw of that ship gave the impression she was overworked and in dire need of a refit.
If we only have the one carrier and it is due a refit do we honestly believe there will never be any intereference from Her Majesty's Government to keep the thing at sea because of an ongoing political situation?
We all know the Admiralty will take this request on the chin and no matter the state of the ship ikt will try its hardest to carry out these requests.
I agree that having two of a type is asking a lot and three would be better but is the reality we would be hard pressed to even crew two such ships? (question NOT statement) I do not see the need for the US style battle group that comes with the carrier but I would assume it would have the minimum one surface escort.
We talk about whether this country will ever put both carriers to sea but a more pressing question still might be 'Will we have any aircraft to put on them?'
I suppose the answer might be that we already operate an aircraft-less carrier so why break this unique situation?