Why do we need F35 if we don't have carriers? Are we completely 100% committed to buying all or some of them? It strikes me as completely unaffordable, and beyonde stealth, what capabilities do we get with it that we can't get elsewhere? (those were genuine questions - not rhetorical).
Even if the carriers are bought and paid for, Rafale is a damn sight cheaper, and allows greater interoperability with France (oh, and we can share / offload carriers...), which seems to be the way the wind is blowing.
The Army might face significant reductions post Afghanistan, but the RN and RAF will be facing them imminently... The apparent willingness to cut military capability rather than waste, and the lack of will to fund them properly, are the things that have really hit home to me how badly these cuts are going to hit the country as a whole. They're either slashing too much and using the financial crisis as the excuse, or we are completely and totally in the ****.