IT is fascinating to observe how people become so corrupted by moral nihilism, that they do not even recognise principle when they meet it face to face. Thus recently Michael Fallon from the deck of a Vanguard nuclear submarine excoriated the SNP for rejecting Trident, because they hold the moral conviction that mass murder by WMD is an abomination. To him, this is simply incomprehensible.
This ethical vacuum is filled with fantasy. We need Trident because of those awful Russians. Ye Olde Soviette Threate lives on in the fevered imagination of our Great British nuclear warlords. The King is dead - Long live the King. Trident is the only thing saving us from Soviet hoards sweeping over the German plain, Russian tanks clattering down Sauchiehall Street, etc, etc.
The fact that the Soviet Union does not exist is unimportant to their fevered imagination. Russia is always a handy scapegoat. I am no admirer of Putin, (my sympathies lie with Marina Litvinenko, Pussy Riot, and the dozens of murdered journalists), however, Erdogan’s Turkey is equally oppressive and authoritarian, but we regard it as a vital ally. This is called having an ethical foreign policy.
Meanwhile, in the real world, on July 7th of this year, 122 states in the UN voted for a draft treaty banning nuclear weapons, showing they share the Scottish vision of a world where we are not teetering on the razor’s edge of global suicide. Naturally, the UK, and the other eight rogue nuclear states boycotted this. As Mandy Rice-Davies famously remarked — they would, wouldn’t they.
An independent Scotland with a written constitution banning nuclear weapons from our lands and waters will be a shining hope for the rest of the world.
Our independence is therefore not merely a matter of local political impact, but of global significance. Once freedom from delusions of British imperial status, Scotland can take a crucial step towards making a world free of nuclear weapons. For this, future generations will bless us.
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