I am sure the anti-Trident summit in Glasgow reflected accurately the views of the great majority of Scottish citizens. We do not agree with the UK government's decision to replace the Trident submarine fleet. We do not support this proliferation of nuclear weapons in direct defiance of the international treaty to which the UK is a signatory. And we most certainly do not want them based and stored here in Scotland.
The reported comments of Sir Malcolm Rifkind that "this is not an issue in which the Scottish government has any interest at all", and Wendy Alexander that "this is a matter reserved for the UK government" beggar belief. That such statements were made by two native-born Scots makes them all the more reprehensible.
The weapons of mass destruction now at Faslane and Coulport are powerful enough to destroy the entire planet several times over, let alone the two million souls living within 50 miles of the base. To suggest that this should be of no interest or concern to Scots and that we should have no say at all in their location on the Clyde makes one question the motives, or perhaps even the sanity, of those making such absurd statements.
Iain A D Mann, 7 Kelvin Court, Glasgow.
I note that some political knickers are in a twist over the First Minister writing to Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons Treaty state parties asking for Scotland to be granted observer status. This is an eminently reasonable request from the Scottish Government and we are witnessing what I suspect will be noted in the history books as the cries from a mortally wounded Labour Party in Scotland and should like to record them again here, all together, for posterity.
First, we have David Cairns MP who claims that our First Minister is "cavorting across the world stage with his discredited loony-left policies". Would those be the "loony-left" of some of Mr Cairns's own colleagues? Some Labour politicians in both Scotland and at Westminster object to the replacement of Trident. I consider these politicians to be many things but generally "the loony-left" is not a phrase I would use to describe them. In fact, "left" is not even a word I use to describe their politics. The Labour Party has morphed so much now that it has actually incorporated the vocal political perspectives of Thatcherism, on top of the practice.
Eric Joyce MP claims that all this will "potentially damage our national security interests". And being a cheerleader for the armed aggression against Iraq was in our national security interests, was it?
Following Eric Joyce's views on the Iraq war, I would have thought a continued period of humility would have been best for him, rather than public exposure, with foot firmly entrenched in mouth. Then we have Jim Murphy MP. He suggests, in an exceptionally Machiavellian use of language, that Scotland is just "seeking support from the leaderships in Tehran and Harare".
We need not bother ask why he does not refer to "Oslo and Helsinki" or "Dublin and Luxembourg" instead.
William Henderson, Flat 3/3, 2 Torrin Road, Summerston, Glasgow.
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