Oh yes, I know exactly why it was done and by whom, but it doesn’t change the fact that what we could afford when we had the largest empire the world had ever seen, we can’t afford now.
Considering we’ve had 13 years of financially disastrous labour government to recover from, it’s amazing we’re bringing into service some of the world’s most expensive and advanced naval hardware such as the Daring class, Astute class and the Elizabeth class carriers, both of which it appears will now go straight into service with the F35B on.
Personally I think we’re doing pretty well to be fifth most powerful in the world currently and I expect military spending to increase again once we have a Conservative government in place of the current coalition one and our deficit is reduced significantly.
http://www.globalfirepower.com/
And at least we do use our forces, unlike many european countries who do nothing or send token support.
Technically, we are richer in absolute terms than we were when we had an empire and could certainly afford more. However, we have come far from the days when the public cried ‘we want eight and we won’t wait’. Spending on defence is not a vote winner and the budget is shaped accordingly....