Re: F-35 Normal state is TITSUP
After all - aside from North Korea - the main threat is domestic terrorism and I can't see a carrier helping with that.
I agree the carriers have very limited uses, but more widely there's still a case for a decent military.
With defence assets you have to take a very long term view. The US (and UK) showed that its OK to repeatedly invade other people's countries to bless them with the gift of democracy. When Russia intervened in Georgia, or Ukraine, they were only following the US model. China's simply declared the entire South China Sea as "property of China", in breach of all established principles of intentional law.
So it seems that imperialism and military adventuring is popular today as it has always been. Would you really want to base the UK's defence for the next half century on the assumption that a few UK-based bearded god-botherers are the only threat we need to prepare against?