Financial Times FT.com

Trident: the virtue of delaying a decision

Published: March 14 2007 02:00 | Last updated: March 14 2007 02:00

MPs vote on Tuesday to replace Britain's submarine-based nuclear deterrent and extend its life until the middle of the century. They are being rushed into a decision that need not be taken now.

Unfortunately, all this purported urgency appears to owe more to political timetables - prime minister Tony Blair's desire for his legacy and chancellor Gordon Brown's need to burnish his security credentials - than any operational necessity.

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