Last one we bought was the Phantom, but that was phased out in the early nineties/late eighties in favour of the Tornado.
I think we plan to buy the JSF, but that's a joint project between the US and the UK?
As for cars. I'd rather take a TVR Tuscan or Vanquish around Silverstone than a Corvette or Viper any day of the week.
And Laz - that 40% figure wasn't dreamt up by me. It was the findings of independent Japanese academic work. I know you would rather not believe it, because it flies in the face of the views you hold dear, but it's a fact. Get over it.
As for Britain and her Empire. My point about the size of Britain compared to the US is this: Britain (as was) went from a small, weak Protestant nation with a small navy to the dominant global force that was the Empire. All this came from an island with a fifth the population of the US, with no natural resources of her own and surrounded by Catholic enemies that would destroy her. Elizabeth I turned all that around and set the foundation stones for the UK.
The US on the other hand had boundless resources, little foreign interference for most of her history and a huge expanse of lebensraum for her large population to grow.
Elizabethan Britain lead the world in terms of freedom of speach, tolerance of ethnicity in a climate of sectarian barbarism on the continent.
The Empire died on the battlefields of WW1, when millions of British and Commonwealth men, the youth of the Empire, died. Who was going to administer and protect the Empire afterwards? WW2 was the final nail in the coffin, when Britain was virtually bankrupted by 3 years of unsupported conflict with Nazi Germany. I say unsupported - every ounce of help received from the US was paid, in full, in cash or in exchange for the shares British companies had in American business. I'm grateful that help was delivered, but it came at a cost.
As a modern Briton, I'm not really bothered either way about the demise of Empire. It was responsible for some terrible things, and also many great things. It's kind of irrelevant now, and only its legacies remain. But I find learning about the achievements of the UK very interesting. The scientific and cultural breakthroughs, the revolutions in thinking. What shines through is the British character - stoicism, tenacity and ingenuity.
