I write this waiting for the flurry of responses, in my world £12m is a lot of money - a huge amount. But in the world of most multinational corps £12m is a cough. In the world of the G8 nations £12m is a hiccup at most.
The government of the UK spends A LOT more than £12m per year on overseas military exercises.
The National Lottery dishes out £12m every few months for guys/girls in the street to splash on a Ranger Rover/ huge house and Footballers lifestyle - but you could bet that many of the same individuals who complain at the price tag of Royal/Governmental jets would gladly stick their hand out for a National Lottery Cheque for anything in the region of £10m!!
Should some get off the "moral high ground" on this issue and just go with the flow? At the end of the day we happen to live in one of the richest nations in the world - and on that sort of scale £12m really isn't alot of money!
When FR order 120 738's at a time why do some get SO upset when the government wants to order 2?