TRIDENT

Trident, fortunately for us, isn't a Scottish parliament issue. SNP claims that they could introduce a special punitive tax on nuclear weapons & thus get rid of our bases is without either legal or practical merit.

The unfortunate thing about the "debate on replacing Trident" is that there hasn't been one. The government keep insisting we must have the most expensive weapon possible against an unknown enemy who might appear some time in the next 20 years. CND keep insisting that immediately getting rid of all our Bombs is the only option.

The technical answer is that the Bomb cannot be uninvented, that the time to decide on a new weapon system is when we know what capabilities this enemy will have, which rather requires us to know who they are. There is also the certainty that Trident depends on US spare parts & may very well have a backdoor in its computer programming which the US could, if they wished, use to switch it off - Our "independent deterrent" makes us dependent not independent. Finally I would support a no first use policy which in turn means no use against a non-nuclear power, & enshrine this is UK law. If we cannot uninvent the Bomb we can, hopefully, at least step back a pace or 2 from the brink.