Closures and cancellations are a fact of life. When Maggie Thatcher decimated the coal industry, she destroyed the way of life and employemt oppertunities of several towns and villages thoughout, Wales, Scotland and England. The people affected by her decision had to a pick up the pieces and build new lives. The same applies now to those affected by the cancellation of the Nimrod Mk4. Take it on the chin and move on.
Slightly off topic perhaps but...
Yes, IT, financial service, service industries and retail replaced the decimated heavy industry, and rapidly shrinking and outsourced / offshored manufacturing industries. Despite what you might think, many of those communities have never recovered. Now the IT, finance and service industries are struggling and offshoring / outsourcing.
So exactly what are they going to be replaced with? I don't see anything on the horizon like there was 20 years ago. We aren't as diverse a country any more. We can't make anything. We can't mine anything (well not in this country anyway). We can't answer telephone calls cos we're too expensive. Bankers are despised, and besides make money for themselves so can do it anywhere - most likely somewhere warmer and tax free. IT can be (and is) done anywhere, and we are an expensive country to do business with. Most of our key domestic utilities are foreign owned and benefit only the shareholder. We can't afford to invest in large infrastructure projects cos they're too damn expensive and will most likely get cancelled before they finish. Many of the "future tech" companies can't get any investment and have closed down. The public sector is shedding jobs like there is no tomorrow, to be repalced with "volunteers" (or those who find themselves out of work, and won't even get benefits unless they do the full time job of someone who used to earn £20-30K for nothing). Once the public sector job cuts really bite, and its found the private sector aren't employing, retail will plummet.
Yes, we'll pick ourselves up, take it on the chin, and move on.... (China anyone?) Just like the Irish will as they move across the Irish Sea in the false belief that we are the green and pleasant land of prosperity (who, whilst broke, generously borrowed £7bn to help bail them out (on top of the £85bn Europe have provided), safe in the knowledge that with a population of only 4.5 million, the Irish loans will never be paid back.)