IT is obvious what the Trident negotiating pitch of the UK Government will be in independence negotiations (Why there should be no backtracking on Trident, September 9). Buy time, and as soon as they get a concession on that, they know they won’t have to worry. Scotland yields to pressure and they will keep on getting their lease extended.

This is why a very clear and tight timetable for removal is essential from the start. We know now that before the 2014 referendum a scenario was being prepared using the threat of vetoing Scotland’s EU membership as the bargaining chip for retaining Trident on the Clyde. That bargaining chip is no longer there, so there is talk about buying off the Jocks by paying for their lease. I think we know about being bought and sold.

READ MORE: Bill Kidd: Why there should be no backtracking on Trident

We also hear about how very difficult it will be to move Trident, and what a long time it will need. Our first priority is the removal of the nuclear warheads and the missiles. Logistically this is a straightforward process that can be completed in two years. Moving the warheads and the missiles happens regularly. Warheads are transported for servicing by road convoy to Burghfield near Reading, which is the manufacturing plant. The missiles get returned to the US for servicing. The rUK would have to build a storage facility, probably at a base that has previously stored warheads like RAF Honnington. I would hope there would be huge protests by those in England opposing these weapons and a demand that they be decommissioned, but that will be Westminster’s decision.

We will still have to deal with the removal of the submarines, but we would in a short period have removed the weapons. The UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons will shortly be established in international law. The SNP, the Greens and some in Labour support Scotland ratifying this as soon as possible after independence. This will provide an international legal framework for the early removal of these weapons.

In 1984 New Zealand announced that no vessel with nuclear weapons or which was nuclear-powered could use their marine or land territory. It rejected the “don’t ask, don’t tell” approach. There was huge pressure from the US and France and it was suspended from the ANZUS military alliance. New Zealand’s response was to strengthen its anti-nuclear position by making it a law. Many have said that it was these actions that established its profile as an independent state.

Isobel Lindsay
Biggar

IN referring to timescales, MSP Bill Kidd underlines the problem of the removal of nuclear submarines from the Clyde by an independent Scotland. It may well prove the major issue. The MOD, a Westminster/Washington alignment, is perhaps the most powerful and secret body of influence on UK and US politics. The development of rocket-launching sites in Shetland and on Scotland’s north coast may well see the them used by the MOD as war will ultimately move into space. This is no longer science-fiction.

The F16 fighter planes can now be independently controlled by artificial intelligence and outperform human pilotage. The struggle for an independent Scotland may well centre on nuclear weapons. Support of the UN and the 84 member states signed up to the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons will be vital, and to the twin threats of nuclear weapons and climate change should be added the reactionary attitude of the present UK administration. The fight for an independent Scotland will be dirty.

We must keep our hands clean and gain the respect of the many nations that have already thrown off the imperialist yoke.

Iain R Thomson
Strathglass

LIKE many, demonstrations at Faslane for the abolition of the nuclear abhorrence was my first active introduction to the independence movement. To be nuclear-free is one of the pillars of my own commitment to independence. To choose to join the great majority of countries in the world that are working towards an outright ban of WMD is the global goal that I want my country to achieve. No backsliding on the removal of WMD from Scotland. Scotland must assert itself and show the world we are no-one’s lackey.

Thom Muir
via the national.scot

ANDY Anderson succinctly described the details of a Scottish currency in Monday’s National and Jim Stamper wrote an informative follow-up yesterday. Between them, they have answered all of the ill-informed and wildly inaccurate garbage being spewed out by the Unionist propagandists.

So, why on earth isn’t the SNP government defending their independence cause by using these soundly reasoned arguments? There is a worrying silence from Holyrood, more so because the anti-independence forces are in full campaigning mode, filling the mass media with lies and misinformation. Saying that the government is totally concentrating on Covid-19 isn’t good enough. Surely some SNP MSP could be tasked with making a sensible case for independence?

It is time we started acting as if we were fully committed to shaking off the dead hand of Westminster. Please, no more the nice guys, let’s get the gloves off.

Tony Perridge
Inverness