Scottish independence: David Cameron sails into Scotland to fight to save 4,000 Scots shipyard jobs on a Nuclear submarine, SNP defence policy under Alex Salmond is a omnishambles, maybe he can set up Bangkok style whore houses to fill the gap!

Dear All

You don’t have to be a defence expert to understand that the Scottish National Party’s defence policy is plain wrong.

At present Alex Salmond did a U turn on NATO membership, the military alliance is Nuclear, but as a sop to his CND/ Sein Fein lite republicans, he wants UK Nuclear submarines out of Faslane.

If Scotland votes for indy, I believe the SNP will do a further U turn on NATO, quite simply their conversion is nothing of the sort.

Can’t be trusted on defence at all under Alex Salmond and Nicola Sturgeon’s leadership!

Can you see Alex Salmond as a war leader?

Can you see Nicola Sturgeon as a war leader?

Me neither!

As well as having a defence policy with more holes than a string vest, there is also the procurement side of the military question to be looked at.

Up to 4,000 jobs could be lost at Scottish shipyards as UK warships are built elsewhere after independence, the Westminster government has claimed.

The Westminster Government hasn’t built a warship outside the UK in over 50 years.

Times are bad, and the UK will protect UK jobs, as well as military considerations, domestic ones also apply, cited as ‘national interest’, code for a political decision to circumvent EU trade regulations.

The official UK government reponse to the Commons Scottish affairs select committee’s investigation into the impact of independence says shipyards on the Clyde and at Rosyth will not be eligible to bid for defence contracts after independence.

So, what has Alex Salmond put in place to cover this shortfall?

Nothing!

Shipyards will close because an indy Scotland won’t be able to have enough orders to keep it going, at least one of the Glasgow yards would close.

And I think that would be Govan.

Just as good reasons can be found for voting indy, there are also sound reasons for not voting indy.

The only certain way to keep thousands of defence jobs in Scotland is to remain within the UK according to David Cameron.

On that issue he is right.

The UK government rightly says Scotland benefits from multi-billion pounds of Ministry of Defence contracts.

This includes the construction of Type 45 destroyers and the assembly of the Queen Elizabeth class aircraft carriers.

My mate’s son worked on the aircraft carrier project.

Hard facts are the currency of the independence debate, which is why, the UK are producing documents to show how more than 2,000 jobs on the Clyde and up to 2,000 jobs at Rosyth are “directly linked” to the MoD shipbuilding programme.

These jobs of the 4,000 people matter or they should matter to SNP politicians, but as we are increasingly seeing, the SNP don’t care, SNP MSP Jamie Hepburn last night on TV got burned.

As I say the UK currently takes advantage of an exception to EU procurement law (Article 346) that enables it to build aircraft carriers and destroyers at home.

So, there are advantages being in the UK, but also in the wider sphere disadvantages, particularly now austerity is biting hard. It’s the same across the EU and a sign that across the EU, things needs reset.

Reform of the EU is needed. Good idea just doesn’t work right!

The government document says:

“As this exemption is currently applied, Scottish shipyards would not be eligible to bid for contracts to build complex warships for the Royal Navy if Scotland was to become independent.”

David Cameron insists being part of the UK opened doors for the Scottish defence industry around the globe.

However, a lot more could be done on that front, Scotland has engineering talent, and we should use that expertise much like the bigger nations use on the world stage.

SNP defence spokesman Angus Robertson MP said it was unwise for the UK Government to put defence at the centre of the independence debate.

Robertson is wrong, the SNP has used and used the anti nuclear argument and still they lose Westminster elections.

Everyone is against nuclear war but there are harsh realities to consider, in this world, there are regimes with nuclear weapons that need to be kept in check.

Robertson says the Scottish Parliament and 80 per cent of Scots were opposed to the Trident submarine system based at Faslane.

He added:

“It is the most enormous blunder for the No campaign to place Trident at the centre of the referendum debate.”

To put his statement into context, there are six SNP MP’s at Westminster because the SNP aren’t seen as global players rather a fringe party by Scots in the international arena.

It is a combination of being seen as as CND/ Sein Fein lite republician club, good for certain things like a council tax freeze, but not good enough to sit at the big table.

At present there are 4,000 people whose jobs are directly connected to defence, and so far all we have had from the SNP Government is vague talk, no detail, smoke and mirrors and quite frankly a pitiful defence policy that will be changed after the indy vote.

The SNP will adopt an anti NATO stance post defeat in 2014, not because it’s right but to get their working class SNP activists back out working to get members of the SNP clique elected.

NATO conversion was a con trick for votes by Salmond, stay tuned post 2014 as it is rolled back to anti NATO.

Yours sincerely

George Laird

The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University