Wanabee,
I find it difficult to believe this snafu was a political decision. It would have been fairly easy to convince a minister that the best way forward ( based on previous experience in the early 90s etc) is that it is better to chop and maintain a recruiting flow than to retain and stop recruiting. It is also cheaper in the medium term. I only observe the pilot situation where I have seen no pilots passing out of Cranwell for about 3 years and I hear it may be another 18 months before we see such an event - an amazing reflection on a Service based on aircrew!
As far as I am aware the RN maintained an aircrew recruiting stream throughout this period - but then again they DID learn the lessons of history. I think the RN also moved their FJ pipeline to the US to avoid he clutches of the RAF controlled UK pipeline.