New Trident Contracts

For a while now, two political forces have been merging in Scotland, that of Britain's nuclear weapons programme and the Scottish nationalist cause. All of the United Kingdom's nuclear arsenal is currently stationed in Scotland at HMNB Clyde, the Royal Navy's Faslane base on the Firth of Clyde. The ruling Scottish Nationalist Party are intractably opposed to this, as are most of the Scottish public, seeing themselves as a "human shield" for any enemy nuclear attack on Great Britain. They have already come close to their goal of an independent Scotland in the recent referendum, see: http://hpanwo-radio.blogspot.co.uk/2014/09/programme-104-podcast-scottish.html, and it is likely there will be another devolution vote in the next few years which could easily go YES, especially since the SNP gained a virtual political monopoly north of the border at the last general election, see: http://hpanwo-voice.blogspot.co.uk/2015/05/general-election-result.html. At the same time the UK government is very keen to renew the Trident nuclear weapons system based at Faslane. This is very controversial. A submarine-launched ballistic missile nuclear deterrent system is extremely expensive and many people think it's an extravagance when at the same time so many old people live in poverty and NHS nurses are underpaid etc, and the government claim it has no money for them so they have to live under "Austerity". If Scotland goes independent then Trident will have to move from HMNB Clyde to a new facility in England or Wales which will increase the cost of replacement by a large proportion, and add to the dispute. And where will it move to? Your backyard? Scottish independence will basically make replacing Trident politically out of the question, see: http://hpanwo-voice.blogspot.co.uk/2013/07/replacing-trident.html.

So why then has the chancellor George Osborne just announced a major refurbishment of the Faslane facilities? He is going to allocate half a billion pounds to constructing new jetties, a bigger dry dock and replacing the dockyard's sea wall. The work is due to begin in 2017. He says it's an "investment" that is all about "keeping Britain safe" in a "dangerous world". The country's Vanguard class ballistic missile submarines supposedly represent a huge "insurance policy" against any hostile foreign action. This will create over two thousand jobs, both naval and civilian, and upgrade the Royal Navy within the NATO ranking. Osborne has been attacked by Nicola Sturgeon, the Scottish first minister and leader of the SNP. She has called his plan "arrogant" because he has "pre-empted" Parliament's decision on the replacement of Trident. Ms Sturgeon has plans for Faslane as a non-nuclear naval base serving an independent Scottish navy. She criticized Osborne for his hypocrisy; as I said above, Westminster wants to flush billions of pounds away on a useless nuclear deterrent while pensioners are starving. She also brings up the irony that the UK government has initiated huge defence cuts during the period that it has been propping up Trident. There are not even any maritime patrol aircraft in the UK's inventory and we have to rely on NATO allies for that role. Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-34101989. I don't think Ms Sturgeon said everything she was thinking in her brief BBC sound-bite interview. What the Westminster government is actually doing is extremely devious. Osborne is hoping that the UK's new financial commitment to the Faslane infrastructure will place both moral and practical obstacles in the way of those in opposition to Trident renewal; also for those in favour of Scottish independence. As I said above, the two issues are intertwined. If the upgrades to Faslane are in progress, or complete, by the time a second independence referendum is announced it will be a useful card to play. It's a bit like living in a house with another person. You want to move out, but your housemate doesn't. So while you head off to the estate agents he calls in some builders to put a new extension on the back, paying them a lot of your money to do so, in order to try and put you off moving. George Osborne is a cunning and ruthless politician; no wonder he's done so well in Cameron's cabinet.

See here for more details: http://hpanwo-voice.blogspot.co.uk/2014/08/salmond-vs-darling-part-2.html.

And: http://hpanwo-voice.blogspot.co.uk/2015/05/trident-submariner-speaks-out.html.