The LPH and the Harrier argument are really two very different things.
If we want to use Apache or any other helicopters in Libya, and I am sure there are some scenarios it might prove quite useful, then an RN amphibious group is just what we need to make that happen. Helicopters are slow and need to be close to the battle to be useful. Without a flat deck, it's not going to work.
That is not true of fast jets, where the GR4s and Typhoons are doing just fine however much Sharkey would have the world believe otherwise. Ideally, we'd have Harriers too, but given the choice between scrapping GR9 or GR4 (a bad choice to have to make), we're lucky we kept GR4.