The thing for me is that the Harrier was pretty much the aviation 'Great Britain'.
Reasonable at a few things but not great at anything.
A little too small.
Had a great 'heydey' which it traded on forever after.
What a perfect jet for the tiny windswept rock that talked a great game and every so often backed it up with a great feat of arms.
The irony is of course that the SDSR required money to concentrate on COIN and in providing it we got rid of our COIN aircraft. We got rid of our carrier which would have made sense had we kept the perky little jet that didn't need Johnny Foreigner's runways...which would now be really handy in the absence of carriers.
But then we have a government that no-one voted for (don't remember there being a 'coalition' box to tick) and we're happy bailing out a bank for £30 billion but not happy spending a sixth of that on the defence that guarantees its existence.
So maybe the decision to bin the jet that reflected us so perfectly actually reflects us perfectly!