The Guardian reports that the costs of building two new aircraft carriers for the Royal Navy have soared again and now look set to reach £7 billion. The ships were scheduled to cost less than £4 billion when the government announced that it intended to purchase them in 2007.
The first of the ships - HMS Queen Elizabeth - will be mothballed as soon as it is built and the second - HMS Prince of Wales - will enter service equipped only to fly helicopters.
Despite questions as to whether the Ministry of Defence could afford the two carriers, the go-ahead was given to build them following last year's defence review, largely because the previous Labour government issued construction contracts locking the Ministry of Defence into continuing with the project.
The government is now commencing the process of issuing 'long lead' contracts for construction of new Trident nuclear weapons submarines. Are we seeing a repeat of the same tactics used by Labour to force through a hugely expensive and unpopular project?
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