And politicians of the major parties know this and they know it would be hard to get such through the legislative system. But, as is the relevant point BM, they do know what their focus groups tell them and one of those insights is not to put hanging in their manifestos. Or indeed to put increases in defence spending at the expense of education pensions, NHS or financial credibility.
The farce is the UK has a formal role as one of the worlds Security Council policemen and a public with no real wish to back that. It's an arse position - just like what I said.
And just to emphasize that: In the run in to the last General Election a sample set of voters were asked
"Q. Looking ahead to the General Election, which, if any, issues do you think will be very important to helping you decide which party to vote for?"
In descending order the answers were
32: Managing the economy
26: Healthcare
23: Education
14: Asylum/Immigration
12: Taxation
11: Unemployment
8: Crime/Anti Social Behaviour
7: Benefits
7: Care for older and disable people
6: Pensions
5: Afghanistan
5: Protecting the environment
4: Other
3: Defence
3: Housing
3: Public Transport
3: Iraq
Yep Defence came equal last yet if anyone makes a mistake on a defence project there is all hell to pay. So what they do now is build in multiple "Assessment phases" to reduce the risk but they cost money and rather than take it from front line troops they delay funding the assessment phases. Result by the time a project fully starts the threat it was designed to address has already changed to make the project in need of serious change = delay and more money.
And that's what happened with the carriers, the aircraft they are intended to support and that new AEW solution of the OP
That poll merely reinforces my comments on focus groups...
Q Looking ahead to the next General Election, which, if any, of these issues do you think will be very important to you in helping you to decide which party to vote for?
Answer: On average 13% mentioned defence (between 8% & 24%)A similar question, but without prompting respondents by showing them a list, was asked in telephone polls in 2001 and 2008-9:
Q. Looking ahead to the General Election, which, if any, issues do you think will be very important to helping you decide which party to vote for?
Answer: On average 2.6% mentioned defence (between 1% & 6%)So the answer you get is largely dependent on what questions you ask (and the way you ask them)...
Clearly, everybody is going to vote for 'managing the economy' as an important factor in the party that they vote for - nobody is going to vote for a party guaranteeing to feck up the economy (even if that is what they subsequently do)...
And as I suggested earlier while 'Public Transport' and 'Defence' come equal last in the survey with 3%, if you changed the question to 'should we spend £50B on HS2 or on Defence' you would I suspect get a very clear answer....
