Navaleye,
Good point, well made. The beauty of being "in" the F35 club is, much like the F16, it is a club that will be churning out aircraft and updates for the next 20-25 years. Whether the FJ world like it or not, they are not the priority in a real fighting war happening today. However, the F-35 option will give us an ability, in future years, to re-assess priorities and, if necessary, increase the number of FJ squadrons.
Yes, I know, we might get caught short. But the FJ mafia running the RAF have totally failed to anticipate the need for SH/AT to fight the war we're fighting now. Perhaps the RW mafia in charge in 10 years time will play a similarly fast and loose game with priorities?
The sad thing is that, as the RW force is finding now, you can't simply generate pilots thanks to the "economy" of contractorising the flying training system.