They thought carriers were unnecessary back in 1982 when they were ready to decommission the Hermes, and the first of the new Invincible class was just coming into the fleet and was already being proposed for sale to Australia.
Then the Falklands War came along and the UK canceled the plans to decommission the Hermes and rushed the Invincible into service. It is doubtful the UK could have taken back those islands without those carriers.
As it was the UK suffered severe naval losses in terms of dstroyers, firgates, and support vessels sunk in winning those Ilsands.
The Hermes went on to serve with the Royal Navy until 1986 when she was sold to India as two more Invincible class carriers came online for the UK.
Those three small, jump-jet carriers have served well and ably ever since.
Now, the UK is reliving history.
They have decommissioned two of the Invincible class already and taken all of the naval Sea Harriers out of service. They refit the sole remaining carrier, the Illustrious, into a helo-carrier and amphibious assault ship.
They are building two new large conventional carriers, but the first, the Queen Elizabeth will come out in 2016 with no catapaults or arrestors and no aircraft and also be turned immediately into a huge amphibious assault and helo carrier.
The second, the Prince of Wales will come out in 2018 with cats, arrestors, and a squadron of F-35Cs ready for that carrier by 2020. So, until 2020, the UK has no capable aircraft carriers. That’s an 8 year window for adversaries to try and conduct mischief...and Argentina is beatig the war drums again...though they are in even worse shape, and, the UK has stationed sufficient troops, modern aircraft (Typhoons) on the island, and warships around the island (a Offshore Patrol vessel, a destroyer, and a nuclear attck sub) to keep any repeat of 1982 from happening.
Once the Prince of Wales has its aircraft, the Queen Elizabeth will go into refit to add the catapaults and arrestors and then she will re-enter service in 2022-2023. At that point the UK will have two capable carriers and through the use of maintenance layovers and refits through their life, will always have one large and veru capable fixed wing aircraft carrier available for use with a couple of squadrons of F-35Cs.
Sad how protracted and wierd their procurement, building, and induction into the fleet has become...but it is due to the liberal mind set of their government and the socialistic nature of their nation which has reduced defense spending to the point that they have such a debacle.
See:
World-Wide Aircraft Carriers - Queen Elizabeth Class
http://www.jeffhead.com/worldwideaircraftcarriers/QueenE.htm
Building plastic models can be time consuming, let alone huffing the fumes from all that glue and paint, but try and keep up.
Cameron's warplane shot down as cost of converting aircraft carriers to fly them trebles