Whichever way we cut it, we'll end up as someone's bitch. The Eurofighter means that we have to take it from the French and Germans - and the Americans too, because Europe can't make millitary jets anymore without stuffing them full of stuff only the Americans can make. I'd rather just bend over for Uncle Sam; rather than Fritz, Pierre and then Uncle Sam.
There's a whole load of bollocks about 'operational sovereignty,' which is an excuse made by the politicos in charge of defence expenditure to justify why they buy overpriced crap from BAE at hugely inflated prices. Whenever someone in the forces starts thinking sensibly and wants to buy off the shelf American kit, BAE threatens to close factories in the constituencies of the MPs in charge of defence procurement, meaning they'd lose votes/their job. So the MPs decide to buy whatever overpriced crap BAE is selling. This corruption costs lives; it, and other things, are the reasons we don't have enough Vikings and Warriors, new, better body armour, better rifles, more helicopers etc...
The normal version of the JSF isn't as good a dogfighter as the Eurofighter, but it's better at everything else. It is the sort of plane that a small nation like Britain needs, especially with our current commitments - a decent enough fighter, and great at close air support. The Eurofighter was ordered before the end of the Cold War... and the MOD was slightly slow to respond to the Berlin Wall coming down. The American F18 isn't as good as the JSF, but it'd still be the most useful plane we've had since the Spitfire. Personally, I'd go for the F18, simply because its cheaper. With all the money we'd save, the new carriers could be proper jobs, flying normal jets, and we could dump the entire VTOL concept.
Besides, buying American kit we wouldn't be as dependent on the Americans as you're led to believe. The Iranians are still flying American F15's 30 years after official aid was cut off, and 20 years after covert aid was cut off. If a bunch of mad Mullahs can manage that, surely we'd manage for a time?