Scottish independence: defence of the realm, Unionists politicians derided the Nationalist security plans as ‘back of an envelope’ stuff, Englishman Angus Robertson isn’t Scotland’s William Wallace, more like Sgt Schultz out of Hogan's Heroes!

Dear All

One of the many acorns in Alex Salmond’s shoes is the bungled defence strategy of the Scottish National Party!

Here is how I see the ‘grand vision’ of Salmond and Sturgeon, it is scream ‘bastards’, then kick any potential enemy in the balls before running away.

SNP defence spokesman is Englishman SNP MP Angus Robertson, he will defend Scotland?

I don’t think so!

Robertson was shown to be worse than woeful in the remit, embarrassment is the word, he compared Scotland’s potential navy with Norway.

When pressed about logistics of the Scottish Fleet, he said he has no idea of numbers and of types of vessels but then went on to say that he has looked at the Norwegian navy website, and that it was very good.

Dick!   

Others have jumped on the risible SNP defence plan, with a £2.5 billion annual security budget in an independent Scotland.

Unsurprisingly, it has been branded "back of the envelope stuff."

The SNP don’t do defence as we have seen by the ridiculous anti NATO and anti Nuclear stance.

This type of stupidity would put Scots at risk, this is the judgement of those attending a defence seminar.

Sir Malcolm Rifkind, the former Conservative foreign, defence and Scottish secretary, was speaking at the Royal United Services Institute in London.

For those who dabble in politics, the Royal United Services Institute in London is a think tank that is highly thought of in political circles.

Rifkind has looked at the suggested NP's security prospectus and says that it contains fundamental flaws.

He pointed out that the suggested 15,000 strength for a Scottish defence force is rubbish, and would result in combat forces of no more than 5000 soldiers or ‘boots on the ground’ as they say. The other two-thirds of personnel would be engaged in such things as engineering, logistics, medical care and intelligence.

Rifkind added:

"So the numbers have to take that into account and, if the 15,000 do take that into account, then the combat forces are no more than 5000”.

He then hit the nail on the head when he said:

"Is that something we should enthusiastically look forward to as being something that would enhance Scotland's position in the world? This is back of the envelope stuff."

Sir Menzies Campbell, the former Liberal Democrat leader, also complained of a lack of detail.

Lord Browne, the former Labour defence secretary, also took issue with the SNP's post-independence defence budget of £2.5bn.

He says that the startup costs of the "extraordinarily expensive series" of systems would have to be established such as a new command and control centre, a Ministry of Defence and intelligence structure has been thought through.

The Labour peer said:

"We should not give any of that away, even for a comparative short period of time easily, because it's an extremely risky thing to do."

Angus Robertson, the SNP's defence spokesman, chipped in and drew a comparison with Denmark; presumably the Danish Navy has a better website than Norway!

The SNP need to have a proper defence strategy, one wonders how long Englishman Angus Robertson sat on his arse, occasionally scratching it before he found the ‘back of an envelope’ and computer access to look at websites?

Couldn’t have been too long, the work he has produced is of such low quality, no one can take it seriously.

Angus Robertson couldn’t defend a wooden hut in a paintball game!

Yours sincerely

George Laird

The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University