Just as the Popular Alliance predicted in one of our earlier stories on the old website, it seems that the government is playing Russian roulette with our national security and the defence of the nation.

The two promised aircraft carriers, which are vital to the nations defence, look like being delayed. The excuse being, that they have to wait while Britain's shipbuilding industry is restructured.

We suspected earlier last year that moves were afoot to scrap the planned building of the carriers, as rumours emerged that the MOD had spent above its means in fighting the war in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Originally the carriers were awarded £4.5 billion each and the ships were to weigh in at 60,000 tons making them the largest carriers to ever serve in the Royal Navy, but today we find that a billion has disappeared off that figure and it now stands at £3.5bn

This is probably correct as the labour hatchet men suddenly knocked 5 then 10,000 ton off the size of each ship

It would seem we have a case of the incredible shrinking ships, and they are slowly beginning to disappear along with the rest of the fleet which is being mothballed to save money.

I think we all know the government has squandered billions in taxpayers money on failed projects, most if not all, of the expensive ones being shelved. Therefore it is logical to assume, that this is another project that will find its way into the scrap bin due to mismanagement and the usual incompetence which is now rife in all government departments.

The Commons Defence Committee warned that if the carriers were late, it could damage the country's defence.

While the new ships are due to replace existing vessels in 2013, the order will not be placed until the industry consolidation is in place.

This in turn may lead to a capability gap which could be both damaging to the defence of the country and expensive to deal with.

In December Sir Alan West, the former head of the navy, said it was vital the UK pressed ahead with the plans, amid fears they might be shelved due to costs as "there are officials within the MoD who are casting lascivious looks at the carrier programme"