"a wide variety of tasks: Carrier Strike, Humanitarian Relief, Non-Combatant Evacuation, Maritime Security, Diplomacy, Promotion of Trade and sometimes, just by being in the right place at the right time,"
Of course the QE's can do all of these things (tho' I'd love to know on what basis we think UK politicians will be able to position them to the right place at the right time ,...) AND they are BIG & VISIBLE - which is important if you'r engaged in gun-boat diplomacy - but maybe not so good in a hot war ....
The point is that everything except Carrier Strike could be handled by cheaper vessels and we could order more of them - say a couple more T45's, 4 more T26's and replacements for Ocean etc
We're in great danger of skewing the RN into one surface role only - the Carrier Strike Group - which will take most of the £££, most of the crews and most of the other surface assets (and some of the SSN capability) to protect/support it