The problem is that with a cat and trap carrier RN squadrons would not be made available for lengthy land based rotational commitments in the way that RN Harrier squadrons have been.
It's clear to me Jacko that you belong to the Bill Sweetman Lack of Logic journalist school. In fact are you really a journalist. I would expect one to be a bit more informed than you seem to be.
You have two carriers one is active while the other is in refit or maintenance. What do you think you do with the air wing of the carrier that is pulling shore duty?
The fact is carriers are used to project power and protect overseas possessions in a way that shore based land power cannot. If you need that capability then you need carriers. If you want to be relegated to performing air police missions and the occasional overseas deployment under Uncle Sam's security umbrella well then you do not need the carriers. Your obsolete (they certainly will be around 2015) Eurofighters should deter Russia as long as Uncle provides back up.