Trident’s fate must be sealed before Scotland applies to Nato
THE SNP policy is for a Scottish state to ratify the new UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW). Nicola Sturgeon has given strong personal support to this and there will be an SNP observer at the first meeting of the 60 state parties in Vienna in late June.
This treaty requires a firm process and timeline for the removal of all nuclear weapons present in a member state and this will be internationally supervised. What is crucial for an independent Scotland is that the TPNW is ratified before any application for Nato membership (“Nato and EU would be cornerstones of security says Sturgeon”, The Herald, May 17). If the Trident issue is not clearly settled, there will be enormous pressure on Scotland to change its position, including a UK veto threat. As with all negotiating positions, once an issue is firmly settled, blackmail pressure becomes pointless.
It should, of course, be emphasised that there is no independent UK nuclear system. There are eight nuclear states which have their own independent systems but the UK is not one of them. The Trident missiles are rented from the United States and have to be returned regularly for servicing. The warheads and submarines are made in the UK but cannot be completed until the US has made its design decisions. The claim that the UK controls targeting has always been met with scepticism by many. This has been considerably strengthened recently by the claims that the Exocet missiles sold by France to Argentina and used in the Falklands war had a “kill-stop” device to keep control of their use in France. That was 40 years ago so how much more sophisticated these devices will be now. It would be irresponsible of the US not to keep control “just in case”.
The UK is in the position of a sub-let tenant whose landlord keeps the only key. The rent of course is high. Scotland needs to control its own home.
Isobel Lindsay, Biggar.
TORY MSP Donald Cameron talks of Nicola Sturgeon “betraying her naivety, and the SNP weakness on international security”. But it’s his own naivety he reveals when he fails to understand that independence would dissolve the present UK, and that if RUK wished to continue as a nuclear power, then the siting of the weapons falls on it.
Has the UK Government held any discussions with the Scottish Government on this issue? If not, why not? I’m sure these weapons could continue at Faslane for a few years, but the subject has to be broached. They could also be moved to France or the United States, if London desired.
I was appalled that BBC Scotland covered none of the First Minister’s speech. The snubbing of Ms Sturgeon seems now to be BBC policy, and the reasons behind it should be aired in public, so the licence fee payers can understand.
GR Weir, Ochiltree.