288 lines
8.0 KiB
Plaintext
Executable File
288 lines
8.0 KiB
Plaintext
Executable File
comment
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columnists
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alancochrane
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8005434
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# Faslane is for Trident, not Nat rowing boats
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## What would an SNP-governed independent Scotland want with arguably
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Britain's most sophisticated defence establishment, asks Alan Cochrane.
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![Trident submarine HMS Vengeance][1]
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Trident submarine HMS Vengeance Photo: Royal Navy
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[![Alan Cochrane][2]][3]
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Alan Cochrane 11:49AM BST 16 Sep 2010
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[Comments][4]
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A sure sign that the SNP administration in Edinburgh - that body that Alex
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Salmond insists on calling a "government" - is being buffeted by the gales of
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changing political fortunes is emerging as the First Minister attempts to
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agree the wording of a cross-party appeal on the Strategic Defence Review as
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it relates to Scotland.
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For a week now Mr Salmond has been trying to find a form of words to which all
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the parties at Holyrood can agree over protecting what's called the "defence
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footprint" north of the border from what are expected to be swingeing cuts. In
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particular everyone appears to be worried that the contracts for the two giant
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aircraft carriers being built, in part at least on the Clyde and at Rosyth,
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might be scrapped.
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What is intriguing is that what seemed to this observer to be a five-minute
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job in getting all the party leaders round a table to attach their signatures
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to a joint submission has taken on all the aspects of top-level summitry.
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It has ended with huge SNP angst at the way the protracted negotiations have
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been reported and what appears to be yet another stumble by the normally sure-
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footed First Minister.
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"Salmond pleads to keep Trident base" was this newspaper's front page headline
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yesterday - a reference that, at the insistence of the Labour, Tory and
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Liberal Democrats, the joint submission now appears certain to contain a
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reference to maintaining the Faslane submarine base on the Clyde.
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Now the Nat leaderships insists, as well it might given the sensitivity of
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rank and file SNP activists over the lack of consultation on this and other
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major policy issues, that they're not now backing the Trident ballistic
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missile system. But an ordinary person might well ask what, if they're not
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keeping Trident, would an SNP-governed independent Scotland want with Faslane?
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Or on a more prosaic level, as a colleague asked one of Mr Salmond's sharpest
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acolytes: " What is the point of having the Barbie house, if Barbie and Ken
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can't live in it?"
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Whatever the Holyrood parties come up with - and, frankly, with a
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Conservative/Lib Dem coalition government in London there's a limit to how
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hard-hitting a resolution the leaders of those parties in Scotland can sign up
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to - there is little doubt that the whole affair is helping expose the
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nonsense that is the Nat view of defence.
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Their insistence that they'd keep Faslane in an independent Scotland tries to
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suggest that we're talking here about some form of primitive wooden jetty
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where a couple of unarmed rowing boats would tie up alongside, rather than the
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lavishly accoutred base, which currently employs - directly or indirectly -
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11,000 people; that is the reality of the Royal Navy's facilities at Faslane,
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arguably Britain's most sophisticated defence establishment.
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The jobs argument regarding the review is, without doubt, an important one but
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we have heard nothing from Mr Salmond - and nor are we likely to - about the
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strategic defence needs of the carriers or any of the other bits of "kit"
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either being built or which are currently based in Scotland.
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Elsewhere at Holyrood yesterday there was embarrassment for both Labour and
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the SNP in separate committee hearings.
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The former's attempt to portray its alcohol commission as some form of neutral
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body was exposed for the partisan, put-up job that it was.
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The health committee heard that not only did Labour pick the commission's
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members but also that there was no evidence that its preferred solution of a
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ban on selling alcohol at below a "floor price" of the cost of production,
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plus the cost of duty and VAT, would work.
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In another committee room, MSPs heard more evidence which confirmed, to this
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observer at least, that last year's Gathering - an international reunion of
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Highland clans - had taken on many of the aspects of a "vanity" project for
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First Minister Alex Salmond.
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The organisation behind the event left £726,000 in debts, including the non-
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repayment of an interest-free loan, agreed with Mr Salmond, of £180,000.
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[X][5] Share & bookmark
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[What are these?][6]
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* Share: [Share][5] [ ][7] [ ][8]
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[Tweet][9]
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http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/columnists/alancochrane/8005434/Faslane-is-
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for-Trident-not-Nat-rowing-boats.html
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Telegraph
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## [Alan Cochrane][3]
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* ### [News »][10]
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* ### [Scotland »][11]
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* ### [Comment »][12]
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* ### [Personal View »][13]
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In comment
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[![Lord Young][14] ][15]
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### [Lord Young has always been politically nave][15]
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[![Scotland's unhappy association with alcohol requires urgent and drastic
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action. ][16] ][17]
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### [Politicking MSPs must follow doctor's orders on alcohol pricing][17]
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[![Trident submarine HMS Vengeance][18] ][19]
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### [Faslane is for Trident, not Nat rowing boats][19]
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[X][5] Share & bookmark
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Delicious Facebook Google Messenger Reddit Twitter
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Digg Fark LinkedIn Google Buzz StumbleUpon Y! Buzz
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[What are these?][6]
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Share:
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* [ ][5]
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* [ ][7]
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* [ ][8]
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* [Tweet][9]
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* Advertisement
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![][20]
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