I disagree that a political party that raises taxes for defence will lose the next general election. What we need is a party that can sell defence to the public. Too much pussy footing around the subject of Putin.
The public needs to be sold that the `peace dividend` comes at a price. A price in money and lives and if we scrimp and save rather than spend on our military that price is much larger for everyone.
We also need to dig a bit deeper on the headline story. Is there a valid reason why these aircraft are being decommissioned? After all the Daily Fail isn't entirely an accurate representation of the news.