Tim,
perhaps your patronising approach to conversation would be better suited to an audience of chimps.
I'm sure that your 'a lot of people' are fellow spotters (nothing wrong with spotters) who are experts at recognising a/c however, not experts at air power projection.
The RAF has gone out of it's way to keep the Harrier, it would have been much cheaper to keep the Jag however, the GR7s capabilities are still valid today. Incidentally, the Harrier was not built to VTOL with a realistic warload, STOVL was and still is the game plan and it's still holding it's own today.
Pureteenlard,
spot on mate, the USMC really does move as one when fighting, demonstrating superb fire power integration, something we Brits are yet to catch up on IMHO.