Quel surprise!

Liam Fox has come out and given a resounding non to the prospect of sharing an aircraft carrier with the French. This is not surprising as it was pretty much a non-starter - the prospect of sharing something of this importance with another country is logistically unworkable and politically suicidal. It has previously been suggested that we share nuclear subs with the French as well, but again that was just much too large an issue to be realistic. What is likely, however, is that less symbolic things, like troop transport planes, could be shared.

I think it was probably mooted to give traction to two other points. First, that the government will make big cuts in defence spending, and secondly that Fox wants more European cooperation on defence issues.