And again, sadly, the RN have been shot in the foot by their own kind .... I fear all this will do is get Joe Public asking questions again how it can be cheaper to build a carrier you are never going to use than to scrap it (and I've heard all the reasons at length....).
Whilst West may not have made the decision to scrap SHAR he became 1SL very soon after and, as far as I can tell, did
nothing to try to overturn the decision .... he (IMHO), like many other very senior Naval officers, were prepared to sell their souls in order to get their new carriers (and, with AFG nowhere on the horizon, probably thought they would also get the bells and whistles to go with them).
Edited, having just seen WEBFs subsequent post, to add :
It may not be the only scenario but it's the only one that could
possibly be "sold" to the public in order to whip up support - there is no appetite (or money!) whatsoever for any more "world policing" or "power projection" or "intervention". Once AFG is over I think you will find a lot of ships, boats, planes and troops at home doing not a lot! I'm not even sure there would be a great rush for humanitarian ops either (just a few hints that perhaps the 'non-swimmers' sort them out!
)