OK I will bite.
To suggest that Air Defence aircraft have not been required since the second world war merely shows your huge ignorance and blinkered view.
QRA has been going on forever and is a very high priority for national defence (can't remember the Military Task number). Ask the public which they think more important - occupying villages in the Middle East/Asia or preventing rogue aircraft crashing into central London and you may well get an answer that you don't like. Just because it doesn't do the in vogue kinetic stuff doesn't mean that it isn't important.
It has never done a single task that others could not have done if it were unavailable
-A slightly ridiculous statement. We don't need UK AAR or Helos in Afghanistan then because there are plenty of other aircraft in the world that could do it. Also incorrect as no other aircraft could do the extra QRA commitment post 9/11. The SHar force were asked but did not have the capability, a fact that probably ultimately led to its demise. A fact that the SHar fans either don't know (it obviously wasn't widely publicised) or conveniently gloss over.
For a decade the Tornado Force (GR and F) flew on Southern watch when the Iraqis did have the capability to down a High Value target. Some may have flown when they sat behind an F15 screen, but we certainly never did in all my experience (not "I heard it from someone down the pub once"). The F3 was the only aircraft betwen the central Iraqi bases and the U2/E3/JSTARS/AAR.
Yes the F3 has never shot down an aircraft - but it has never failed in its job. No hijacked airliner has flown into a UK building, no HVAAs were lost on southern watch, no friendlies were shot down. How many others can claim that?
The one time when you could say that it failed was Gulf War 1 - it deployed very quickly and was ready but at that time the kit was pretty appalling, most importantly the lack of suitable IFF was ridiculous and was a show-stopper.
If you want to live in the "what if" world of a medium/large traditional war against a capable opponent - as still flown on some exercises, then the F3 does very well. I am glad someone noted my TLP AA stats, although last I saw it did better than the F15 but was bettered by the M2000! If all you focus on is the here and now then the F3 has done its job effectively. In my own opinion what would be better would be to have a multi-role aircraft that can do AD/AI/CAS as the situation requires. Give it plenty of thrust and performance so that you can always stick kit/payload on it at a later date and voila! Just don't go multi-national with the europeans (except the French).
What I find ironic are those that rant on that all we need now is SH and everything else can go. They are no better than those that a decade or 2 ago said that all we need is FJ and SH/AT could just hang on with minimal support. We need a balanced and flexible force that can react to unforeseen situations - because that is what
always happens.