Trident rebel’s direct hit on establishment

WILLIAM McNeilly is no longer on the run. It is possible he may face court martial. We will see.

He has already endured a verbal firing squad – from the British military establishment.

You’ll have heard them on the TV and radio, plummy voiced “defence experts” coming to the aide of their old Admiralty pals by taking shots at the brave whistleblower.

They blast holes in his character – mocking his junior rank, questioning his experience and even his sanity.

But submariner McNeilly is superior to them all. He was doing his duty when he blew the gaff on Trident safety breaches.

It is the duty of our armed forces to protect us – “us” meaning the population as a whole, not the politicians who squander our taxes on these terrifying weapons.

Able Seaman McNeilly has served us well with his warnings of at least 30 safety breaches involving the nuclear submarines.

His first-hand report, now deleted from the internet, detailed instances of toilet rolls being set on fire accidentally by a cable near a missile compartment.

He described faulty hydraulics, dodgy electrics and dysfunctional generators.

Most bizarrely, he said a missile compartment is used as an exercise gym. You couldn’t make it up.

McNeilly suggested holidaymakers at the average airport face more stringent security than workers at Faslane. Passes, he claimed, got cursory checks.

“I have no reason to lie” he wrote. “If change isn’t made, a nuclear catastrophe will almost certainly happen.”

His overlords have every reason to lie. They want to keep up the pretence that Britain is a world power and needs big bombs to play a game of military oneupmanship.

Membership of the nuclear club is of absolutely no benefit to 99 per cent of UK citizens.

They endure a poorer standard of WHERE did it all go wrong, Jim?

Try Sanquhar, where this picture was taken.

It depicts the now departed Scottish Labour leader during the referendum last year, campaigning with David Mundell MP, the last remaining Tory.

The town in Upper Nithsdale is famous for its knitting patterns, a historic Tolbooth and the world’s oldest functioning post office.

Now it could make history as an important staging post on Scottish Labour’s journey towards oblivion. living than citizens of non-nuclear armed countries such as Canada, New Zealand and Germany.

But the weapons make politicians, generals and mandarins feel like they are global players.

Trident’s safety record has long been suspect.

It is now more than six years since HMS Vanguard collided with the French nuclear sub Le Triomphant.

The smash was hushed up as a minor incident at the time, even though Scottish CND filmed Vanguard undergoing repairs at Coulport in the dead of night.

Now McNeilly reveals an officer who was on the sub at the time told him there had been a massive cover-up. The crew believed they were about to die.

Then in 2013, it was disclosed that the Ministry of Defence’s internal “safety case” evaluation had ruled out relocating Trident to Devonport at Plymouth, because it was deemed too dangerous.

We learned that a safety assessment by the MoD concluded the “societal contamination” of an accident at Coulport was “close to the tolerability criterion level” – because 5200 lived within five kilometres of the ship lifting facility.

The conclusion was these 5200 human beings were expendable. However, 166,000 live within five kilometres of Devonport – and their deaths were therefore above “the tolerability criterion level”.

I would say that any death as a result of a Trident accident is intolerable, whether in Plymouth or the banks of the Clyde.

William McNeilly showed true concern for humanity – and risked his own future in the process. We owe him a debt.

The millions of Scots who wish to rid our land of these evil weapons can now say, with defiance: “I am Able Seaman McNeilly.” He deserves our solidarity – and our protection.