I'm a merchant seaman by trade and spent some 30 years at sea. Why is this is important - do you need to know that? No - but you do need to know that under the original Royal charter awarded to the Navy their primary role was stated as to 'protect the merchant fleet'. The role of protection of the country from insurgents comes way down the list of duties.
We no longer have a merchant fleet of any size and so politicians, of any persuasion, can argue for cost cutting and downsizing with relative impunity. In short, we have so few merchant vessels registered under the British flag that they could probably get away with two frigates and one squad of bootnecks.
Another observation which many people, even within the RN, did not realise was that under 'Options for change' the First Sea Lord wanted to cut a side from the triangle of command rather than cutting out a layer (I was a civilian working with the RN at the time). This would have had the effect of maintaining effective chain of command and also of maintaining the correct of proportion (or number) of bodies in the correct rank or rate. Sadly he was over-ruled on this by General Staff and we ended up with a number of thin layers being removed which, within 2 years, saw the RN without any qualified navigators, precious few WO1's and even fewer reliable killicks - So it's not always the politicians to blame!
Nick