While Ministry of Defence chiefs were no doubt acutely embarrassed, the story about Britain’s top nuclear submarine, HMS Astute, running aground off Skye, was manna from heaven for the newspaper headline writers.
Yesterday, The Scottish Sun superbly leads its front page with ‘Shunt for Red October’ while, on the inside spread, it is ‘Cock-up Periscope’.
The Daily Record meanwhile has: ‘We’re sub marooned’ and ‘Oops periscope’.
The Scottish Daily Mail’s front-page lead is : ‘Another £1bn on the Rocks’; and the Scottish Daily Express has: ‘Commander of Crash Sub Faces Das Boot’.
The Times, in its Scottish edition, has waxed lyrical with its front-page heading: ‘Speed Bonnie Boat? Not Until the Tide Comes in’.
And 'The Thunderer' has a most amusing juxtaposition. Under a big picture of the HMS Astute, with the above headline, it has a story on how Prime Minister, David Cameron, is to get involved in trying to sort out the arcane procurement deals undertaken by the MOD
And the heading, right under the picture? ‘No More MOD fiascos’.
