I think these sort of flypasts are a pretty good yardstick for the amount of fat or stretch in the system. The presence of four frontline aircraft for the marriage of the future king and queen, a state occasion in the presence of worldwide heads of state and a TV audience of billions, to me says 'f*****' or shall we say 'chinstrapped' to be polite.
I wonder we are approaching the time when the greater British public will begin to wonder 'Whatever happened to the RAF? It just slipped away without anyone noticing like Jeremy Beadle or Opal Fruits'.