The carriers are coming and rightly so. They will form the backbone of the UK strike capability for the next 20 years. Future force strengths will be based on this. We need Typhoon for UK air defence, F35 and carriers for the rest. This is what will happen. Lets not be naive.
I did Lewis Page an injustice. He never commanded a Minesweeper and is not qualified to write the tripe he does in the expectation that people might believe it. I bought his book and had a good laugh. An awful waste of otherwise good paper.