Red Line,
That is just it-they probably would if someone told them the consequences of the current cuts being made. They truly believed that we as a military could get together a Falklands style task force brimming with helicopters and C130s ready to preposition at short notice - and as I said they were shocked that we hadn't already dispatched a force just in case the civ charter option fell through.
The British public does not understand capability gaps, holidays or seed corning - and no one is telling them of the true implications of not having Harrier or Nimrod or enough helicopters to lift it's troops/supplies/civilians, rather instead to lose the true impact of the cuts in the back ground noise of other cuts and headline grabbing news.
I believe that if the British public knew that it's extra £50 was definitely going to it's military it would gladly cough up for their defence, both at home and overseas.