I'd also add that it's interesting to see how Government priorities change.
You may be interested to read how a previous Government (Labour again) had neglected the Country's conventional defences. Happily the subsequent investment meant that we won the Cold War.
It's a good job we have more than 74 air defence aircraft to deploy (ergo defend the UK) nowadays (tongue in cheek BTW) ..................................... But I suppose we'll never face a resurgent Russia with over 200 conventional aircraft. They're our friends after all.
And the date:
