Camel,
The purchase of P-8 will take time. Plenty of time to ramp up to meet the demand. The RAF training pipeline has a reputation for being hard to manage. I'm know, I used to be SO1 Trg at HQ 1Gp. That reputation came from the difficult days of the PILOT pipeline that fell victim to an unprecedented series of cuts and other external factors - I'm not trying to defend it, I didn't run it.
The WSOp training "pipeline" is nowhere near as complicated and nowhere near as long. Therefore it can react far more quickly to demand. Remember, the P-8 purchase is still a rumour. Would you imagine that the MoD et al aren't, right now, trying to work out what they are going to do and what they might lose in SDSR should this be a viable project?
Just because you and others closed it down at a time when there was a lower demand, doesn't mean it can't be ramped up now. Actually, it already is, as you stated. Maybe you didn't shut it down properly.
Again, I suggest you read my posts #8 and #17. Look at the bit about RAF folk doing this job in the US of A.