Just to spark up the discussion a bit and to 'test the water' amongst you seasoned ppruners how about looking at it another way.........
.....haven't we 'shrunk' enough to having a common command chain for all 3 services? Why for instance do we need 3 medical services complete with a whole chain of VSO's? An injured serviceman is not going to care what colour of uniform the medics are wearing or which band the stretcher bearer plays for in his day job!
Isn't it about time we stopped faffing around and going for a UK Defence Force that enabled a complete clear out of all the VSO's who are in non-jobs in all of our services?
It may be hard to swallow for a lot of people (particularly current VSO's) but surely someone has got to do a bit of joined up thinking on this one?!