I never cease to be amazed that the UK public puts up with this tomfoolery.
It wasn't always so. I recall that when RAF ace "Ginger" Lacey, a veteran of the Battle of Britain was later posted to the Burma area in WWII, he flew Spitfires (I think the Mk. VIII) and once hit a Jap Oscar with his first burst of 20mm. The Oscar blew up, and Lacey returned to base.
He was having a pint in the officers' club when his armorer came in and said, "Sir, are you sure that you got that Jap you mentioned? Your cannons fired only 8 rounds?!"
Lacey smirked, "Eight rounds? As many as that?"
Of course, it was luck as well as skill. Nice shooting, though, and the Oscar was a very agile opponent.
Stephen Coonts, author of, "Flight of the Intruder" and many other bestselling aviation warfare novels, was a Navy A6 pilot during the Vietnam war. He has said in print that he many times wished for a gun on his plane.
His bomber was supposed to always be protected by a Phantom escort, but "things happen", and he missed opportunities to strafe, too.
By the way, before the Gulf War, RAF pilots had to trade their Browning 9mm's for .32 PPK's. Makes danged little sense there, too.
Tamara-
Isn't that quote originally, "A meal without wine is like a day without sunshine"? I believe it is from Alec Waugh. Saw it in a wine book years ago.
Lone Star
I was amazed with all the budget cuts that they would by a fighter, I mean all our missions for nearly the last 25 years have been ground attack, unless we're going to fight america anytime soon they're utterly usless, we should have bought some fancy new gound attack aircraft. I mean we also have F-22 orders in.....what for! Although I suppose that mistake was made in the Falklands, when we had harriers against Mirages (though because of superior pilots we didn't lose a single harrier to them....but it could have been costly, I mean many of those harriers still had their poly wrap on from the factorys 
