[Mike Bell]

Originally Posted by Mike Harte

Possibly, but more to do with a Prime Minister who wanted to make doubly certain that his constituents, and those in the next-door constituency, kept their jobs up in Glasgow.

The initial contract was written in such a way that the cost to the taxpayer would have been greater to cancel the order for the two carriers rather than build them. And if cancelled, the only beneficiaries would have been the main contractors who would have made a huge profit for doing absolutely nothing except acknowledging the receipt of the notice to cancel.

Clever. Was Blair PM?

Probably just as much of a problem now affording the planes to go with the carriers......