"I am deadly serious in saying that they are just as much a part of British culture as Big Ben, a Constable painting or a poem by Sassoon."
Well if so, how about the Royal Yacht? She was around a lot longer and was arguably a far greater part of British Culture. That didn't prevent her disposal and it seems that no-one really misses her either!
The comment that the pointless, ignored petition regarding the RN is attracting less signatures than the pointless, ignored petition about the Red Arrows is pretty daft given that the general public are pretty ignorant about what it is we do as armed services, for them. The fact that they think that preserving an aerobatic team is more important than maintaining vital front line maritime security, along with all the other george about theatre entry, power projection etc etc, is a staggering indictment of public opinion and just goes to show that we are a fundamentally shallow nation, more interested in preserving entertainment for ourselves than caring about the less interesting, but critically important issue of operational capability. I know which I'd rather keep and I think its a real shame that there should have be a choice between the two, as I think that the Reds are an awesome sight and the pilots highly professional. But if you have a Govt with such a limited understanding of defence, as we do now, then there are hard choices to be made. If chopping the RA's saves just one fragment of OC, then so be it.
I bet those boys out in Afghanistan who haven't even got a decent amount of armoured vehicles and next to no helicopters aren't wishing for an air display and an ice-cream to help them out.
Well, maybe they'd like an ice-cream...