We may still get CTOL JSF and the carriers have gone back up to 60,000 tonnes was the last I heard. Neither decision has been set in stone just yet.
VSTOL JSF is under threat because theres doubts whether the US Marines will be getting the aircraft, VSTOL variant, at all. If that happens the UK is going to have to pick up the entire development budget for the VSTOL JSF. We'd buy CTOL before we did that.
Also interesting are the rumours that the two carriers will be quite different to each other. One getting a ramp and single island structure and the other getting a flat deck and double island. Why they want to do this is not entirely clear to me.
I'd rather be flying CTOL than VSTOL and that view seems to be shared by most of the other pilots I talk too. It just lets us have so many more options.
Gatso