PhilR,
Or is my laughable level of fast jet knowledge letting me down here?
If you seriously think that Tornado should be dumped before Harrier, then yes.
It's not just capability - though Tornado has radar, Raptor, a second pair of eyes, is faster, flies further, carries more, and is fully compatible with PWIII. It's about how much life is left in the airframes. It's about seven versus four squadrons......
Harrier will be dumped before it's replaced, unless you're prepared to sell several million pounds on each airframe just to 'sticking plaster' an extended OSD, because Harrier OSD and JSF ISD don't tally. Harrier could get to 2017 before the recent nastiness upped the utilisation rate. Tornado GR's good to 2025.
Madbob,
You're not going to get a defence of Gordon B from me, but I would gently point out that it's the other lot who have done the most damage, and have presided over the biggest cuts in defence forces, programmes and structure.
I would also suggest that comparing the forces c.1952 with the forces today is unprofitable. Defence then was manpower intensive, and top-of-line fighters like the Venom and Hunter were relatively cheap. Even by 1964, when a Ford Cortina cost in the order of £800, a frontline fighter was equivalent to less than a thousand family cars - whereas today's Typhoon is equivalent to more than 3,000!
I like your list of spending priorities - "If the government wants to spend it way out of recession it could at least start by spending cash on replacements for Tristar, Hercs, VC10's, Nimrods, CSAR assets, and some more support helos. Then ships for the navy......armoured cars for the army....hospitals for the injured......and all the things we used to have but somehow don't have anymore!" though I'd head that list with Support Helicopters and tankers. But either way, carriers and JSF don't make the cut beside such 'defence essentials' - and by cancelling them you could afford most of the rest.