pitotheat
What Thunderbird7 said.
Regrettably the RAF's senior leadership can only think in terms of "exquisite technology", fast jet numbers and UAVs (or the new latest Gucci toys - UCAS). Anything else is not worth worrying about and is viewed as an annoying sideline.
Genstabbler
You make a fair point and no doubt someone will soon be on here saying that all other nations MPA are run by their navies (except the Aussies, Canadians, Kiwis, Russians, Norwegians, Chileans, South Africans etc etc). The great thing about a properly equipped multi-mission platform is that it can be used in many more roles than just MPA - if needed. Think ISTAR rather than just MPA. I guess it doesn't really matter in the long run, as long as you have the required capability.