This is a classic case of a non-story being used to push up viewing figures by eager journalists.
Paul was only echoing the sentiments of many of us who feel frustrated at the thought of losing military SAR to the cheapest bidder.
Many of those who peruse these pages know that Sea King serviceability can be poor - given the number of hours they fly compared to civilian counterparts this is not completely surprising. However, no-one elses serviceability figures come under such close scrutiny as ours - partly our own fault maybe for being too honest!
The bottom line is that we do achieve a very impressive serviceability level despite the fact that it is an old aircraft and we continue to serve the British public in the same professional way we always have.
Yes it would be nice to have new aircraft, but you can blame the Govt for using up all the money on bigger and better toys and playing world domination.