We cannot defeat our real enemies by using nuclear weapons

What transpired was a description of this weapon system with repeated use of the term “deterrent”. No-one wants to deploy it so it is somehow acceptable and necessary. The crew, like Captain Darren Mason, are just doing their job, so that must be right then – while ignoring that mutually assured destruction, wreaking global devastation, would end human life as we know it, probably totally.

Yet they are prepared to follow orders, without any real concern for the potential consequences of their actions. A position well claimed through many conflicts by war criminals perpetrating heinous acts against humanity. How is widespread death and destruction from nuclear obliteration any less than another even more heinous act, just because we would be committing it on the diktat of our Prime Minister? Particularly given the potential of one held in such poor public regard as the current one. Have we learned nothing from centuries of conflict?

At the conclusion of the programme, Rear Admiral John Weale tells us that no-one really wants nuclear weapons ... but “we are planning to have them for the next 50 years”.

So it’s a done deal, whether we Scots support it or not. Our UK Union membership means we will be forced against our will to be party to this inhumane weapon system, and the increased danger it puts us in with its continued location at Faslane.

Trident’s replacement is currently reckoned to cost around £200 billion, before any expected design, construction, operational cost overruns and other usual ongoing cost increases. With the potential for a further cycle of replacement during the next 50 years, going forward, the cost to the nation will rise exponentially.

And all while we have children going to school hungry, precarious employment prospects, widespread poverty with even the working poor using food banks, and we know our real enemies are lunatic terrorists, pandemic and climate change that nuclear weapons can’t protect us from. Shouldn’t tackling these be our real priorities?

Clearly the Royal Navy took the unprecedented step to permit this programme being made at the behest of the UK Government trying to warm our feelings about nuclear weapons, recognise a “need” for them and in the hope this will drive a wedge in Scotland’s drive to call upon its Claim of Right and independence.

Isn’t the UK Government’s mistake assuredly that Scots are nae sae daft?

Jim Taylor

Edinburgh

OTHER independence-supporting political parties and groups are forming and that may separate the total vote in a referendum for independence.

The difficulty this may cause is reflected in some of the USA state votes that were close.

The discussion around how to place one’s votes, particularly the second list vote, is very prominent in the National’s letter column.

It would be interesting to see how the line of thinking is going, reflected in the voting.

An idea would be to hold an ongoing, online vote. This would be open-ended, that is, without a time deadline, to see how it develops. It would be one for The National to do.

Willie Haines

Edinburgh

WHERE have all the great leaders gone?

At times of conflict and upheaval, countries have been blessed with leaders who have become world icons. Mandela, Gandhi, Roosevelt, Churchill, King, to mention a few ...

But as the dust settles in America, Biden or Trump is the best they could find! In the UK we have Boris. In the latest poll (Nicola not included) Angela Merkel proved to be most popular. New Zealand’s leader was also not included.

There surely must be better people available in America – there must be some senator somewhere that has the qualities needed. Britain seems also void of talent. There is certainly no-one in the present Tory Cabinet that could set the heather alight.

Where are the people blessed with the necessary qualities of integrity, presence, charisma, communication, influence, empathy, self-awareness, humbleness, righteousness, sacrificing and fair play?

In Scotland, in the opposition parties (apart from the Greens), nobody comes close to look anything like a leader. What’s happened? What’s gone wrong? Is it because big international businesses really run countries and any puppet will do? Maybe a fellow National reader can shine some light on this issue!

Robin MacLean

Fort Augustus

BEFORE Mr Russell can tell the shifting voters anything about our future life in the EU, he needs to announce that our citizenship by parental descent will be unrefusable: to meet the human rights of our emigrants’ offspring exactly like himself and Ms Riddoch! Many families have now waited seven years for that to be said, after it was not said in the White Paper.

Instead, some shocking excluding views on our close family diaspora were heard during the first independence referendum, seriously argued to be part of “civic nat” theory.

The European Convention on Human Rights, including Article 8 on family life, are part of EU law. An applicant must comply with them to be valid. As my EU petition lodged under Article 8 during the referendum recorded, by this, the life practicality of family ties requires family background to be one of the entitlers to unrefusable citizenship.

Maurice Frank

South Queensferry