And yet the work is still formally suspended, in that the final go-ahead (the "main gate" decision - why does the military-industrial complex come up with such stupid phrases, and why do doe-eyed politicians go along with them?) has been postponed until after the next election.
I hold out no great hope, because...
- Conservative and Labour are signed up to the "independent nuclear deterrent" (Jeremy Corbyn and a few other honourable exceptions notwithstanding).
- Governments since the 40s have spent and spent on these phallic beasts whatever they declare in public.
- Whatever the official status of the accounting stream (and Mr Corbyn asked an interesting parliamentary question on that subject today, which may have some mileage given the coalition's declared commitment to "transparency"), somehow nukes always find the money to keep going - rather like MI5.
It's worth noting that the Atomic Weapons Establishment at Aldermaston is managed by Lockheed Martin (that fine not-British company that's running our census as well), Jacobs Engineering Group (another US corporation, not well known, looks like a mini-Halliburton) and Serco (fairly British, but originally a subsidiary of the Radio Corporation of America). That's the "independent nuclear deterrent" for you!
The fact remains, however, that the Lib Dems have managed (with the fortuitous support of a painfully diminished defence budget) to get the commitment to major expenditure delayed. They sit there not saying anything - I fully expect to see Nick Harvey studying the ceiling and whistling on the front bench. Clutching at straws, certainly, hoping that something will turn up, but it's worth having that slight chance.
