“If the US pulled the plug on the UK nuclear program, Trident would be immediately unable to fire, making the submarines little more than expensive, undersea follies.”
Yeah, that's the reason why I said that the UK doesn't actually have nukes. They have all the expenses of trying to maintain a nuclear programme, but with none of the effective deterrence.
Remember the Trashfuture bit where Milo argued that the UK is the only actually right wing country. Every other right wing project spends massive amounts of money on their millitary and their police, but the UK is so ideologically committed to austerity that they even did it to their imperial peacekeepers. Turns out they even did austerity to their nuclear programme, which is definitely a unique strategy.