The reason that Our Dave can get away with it, are these replies on another forum about the MR4a :
You and your ex colleague are the ones with a head buried up the idea that we are a military power.
You fail to grasp we do not have the money OR THE RIGHT to intercede in affairs of other contries outside our borders. We are not the worlds policemen, we do not project influence. We are also not here to save every Russian trawlerman in the Atlantic or polar regions. Do the rest of the world pay us for such services, or have the ability to reciprocate in the middle of the indian ocean?
You are acting like a small child thats had his fancy electronic toys taken away from him.
And another:
As a self confessed ignoramus on this subject, and therefore representative of the great majority of the British public, the Nimrod is, to me, a Comet. A 60 year old plane with exploding fuel tanks.
another:
Anyone who calls Nimrod advanced either is joking or makes the junk..
And the people who ordered it were - to put it kindly - cretins...Unsafe at any speed was the motto of the prior one.
I could go on. Ignorance is bliss it seems. They must be very happy.