The way things are going there is a good chance that even if they do order 12-14 aircraft none of them will see Afghan dust in the current operational time-scale.
Combine this with the fact that reports coming back from theatre are suggesting that current lift is sufficient and you have two good excuses for not going ahead.
The problem I have is that I know of many sub-contract/system suppliers that have been asked, told and in some cases even funded to ramp up for this purchase. In the big scheme of things Boeing will view cancellation as a minor irritation but the teams in the UK already working on this will be devastated.
While the powers that be mull all this over there are a lot of highly paid people attending various costly meetings, all funded of course by the MOD, that are carrying on normal jogging billing against a potentially dying project. These same people could be using their time much more wisely attending the meetings to sort out real operational issues and problems such as DAS and Brownout!
Stop the faffing about, grow some big 'uns and announce the decision.