Do you think that those British sovereign bases remain on, yet not in, Cyprus because that was the preference of Archbishop Makarios?
Scottish independence would not just happen on the day after a Yes vote, nor would it happen purely on the SNP's terms. There would have to be a treaty.
And that treaty would guarantee a British nuclear base exactly where it is now for as long as the United Kingdom wanted one, even if that base therefore had to remain under British sovereignty and cease to be legally part of Scotland.
Or else there would be no treaty, thus no independence, and thus, as much as anything else, no more SNP and no more Alex Salmond.
Salmond is the only politician who could sell such a deal, the only deal that would be available, to the SNP and to its own, electoral, base. And he would.
Salmond is the only politician who could sell such a deal, the only deal that would be available, to the SNP and to its own, electoral, base. And he would.
The only way to get rid of nuclear weapons is within and through the state and institutions, above all the Parliament, of the United Kingdom.
The Scottish Affairs Committee don't seem to agree with you:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201213/cmselect/cmscotaf/676/67607.htm
They suggest a sovereign base would be more problematic than just moving to France.
No, they think that it would be more expensive. That's not the same thing.
DeleteThere is no way that those weapons are going anywhere while the British Government, fully backed by the Americans, wants to keep them where they are. And it has nowhere else to put them.
If that meant that you just didn't get independence, then you just wouldn't get independence, and all all blame for that would attach to the SNP in general and to Alex Salmond in particular.
He'd never go for that. He'd sign. And you'd go along with it, because he is Alex Salmond.
The only way to get rid of these weapons is within and through the Parliament of the United Kingdom.