Only one week to go, folks, until the main event itself: the Comprehensive Spending
Review. And judging by this morning’s papers, the Treasury have almost settled on their final acts. Only the
welfare, eduction and defence budgets have any significant question marks hanging over them.
Those question marks, though, are fading fast. A story in this morning’s Times (£) reports that David Cameron has endorsed the building of two aircraft carriers, but has decided to delay the Trident upgrade until after 2015. No, strictly speaking, he’s not going back on this. Rather, the idea is that the coalition will keep on working towards a replacement for Trident between now and the next election – but will hold back from signing the very final contracts until five years hence. In theory, this means that the next government could row back on the upgrade.
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