I've heard the difference in price between the two sides is not much more than £100million, and this is just a bit of last minute jockeying to increase the profit margin for the consortium and this sort of thing goes on with all large government contracts. The press likes to exaggerate as usual to turn a little haggling into a crisis.The consortium is saying £3.8Bn, the MOD is saying £3.6Bn, they will meet in the middle somewhere. When big business says jump, most politicians say how high, and too much is at stake for the corporations involved to let this project fail. PM Blair is behind the project if for no other reason than he sees it as a major reinforcement of Europe's position, which is why the French were encouraged to participate. Both Governments see the CVFs (and the CdG) as giving Europe a degree of independence from the USA, although numerically Europes Naval Forces still won't match the USN they will gain a degree of autonomy and will be able to show Europe is pulling it's weight in any future operations.
The 'Pulling our weight' argument is the primary justification in my view, as it is unfair on America for her allies to keep saying "Oh the Yanks will bring their carriers so we don't need to bother." Being allies means sharing the burden, putting our knecks on the line as much as our allies do. Otherwise the US will soon start asking why they are 'carrying' us all the time, as I'm sure some uninformed types do already.
