An Independent Scotland will not automatically be admitted to NATO –I’m sure many of the Yes supporters will welcome this news and hope that Scotland never will be.
However, more seriously, there are doubts from two think tanks that the SNP have not got their Defence Policy right and this may be true as far as I know, then I read the main editorial in today’s Scotsman which kicks off by tackling the same point but quickly sinks into discussing Trident, Faslane and Coulport.
Why are Trident, Faslane and Coulport taken as synonymous with Scotland’s defence? There is far more to defence than these nuclear aspects; the UK had all this out with Greenham Common 30 years ago (time passes). Just a few examples: coastal protection, protection of Scotland’s fishing grounds, fighting terrorism (Scotland is no more likely to be immune than rUK), policing as a last resort to law and order, providing forces to help in world trouble stops (it could be that Scotland decides not to – but I can’t believe if Salmond is still around that it won’t), providing a helicopter search and rescue service. None of these are aided in any way by Trident or nuclear weapons.
In any case many of the non-aligned Yes/ Noers consider that a Trident replacement cannot be afforded by the UK and sooner or later the Westminster Government will come out over night with such a statement; even the Heads of the Defence Forces are questioning the value of Trident and more particularly the fact that a replacement will suck all the available capital away from their direct empires.
Mike Vickers' Blog 
Leave a Reply