WHEN Scotland becomes an independent country, weapons of mass destruction will be removed from the Clyde. Nuclear warheads are only stored at HMNB Clyde for the sole purpose of being mated to Trident II D-5 missiles before they are loaded onto nuclear submarines.

As is widely known, as part of the agreement made by the Thatcher and Reagan governments, the UK’s missiles are maintained by the United States at Kings Bay Georgia, as part of a shared pool.

The reason warheads are joined to the missiles at RNAD Coulport was a cost saving decision made by Thatcher’s government when the Trident agreement was signed in 1982. Therefore, all nuclear warheads could safely be removed from Scotland within three months of Scottish independence. As soon as Scotland becomes independent, it would simply be a matter of blocking the transport of warheads to Scotland from Aldermaston in England, and when the at sea submarines return to HMNB Clyde, sending their warheads back to Aldermaston. From that day forward, Scotland would be a nuclear weapons-free state.

The only way Scotland can remove nuclear weapons from our shores is through independence. Anyone who says otherwise isn’t serious about what they are offering, or they’re not serious about Scottish independence.

The Scottish Greens have announced that they will remove Trident from Scotland using the powers of devolution. It must’ve come as a surprise to Nicola Sturgeon and Alex Salmond that the Scottish Parliament has had the powers to remove Trident from Scotland all along. Presumably, it also comes as a surprise to the Greens, who have had representation in Parliament since 1999 but have only just realised that they haven’t bothered to use these powers.

The Scottish Parliament does not have the powers to rid Scotland of nuclear weapons.
The Greens say that they will amend the Marine Scotland Act to achieve this aim. Nothing in the Marine (Scotland) Act 2010 applies to any activity relating to a matter which is a reserved matter by virtue of paragraph 9 (defence) in Part I 
of Schedule 5 to the Scotland Act.

I don’t like that for one moment. But it’s exactly the same reason that Scotland was dragged out of the EU against the expressed will of the Scottish people. And it’s the same reason that as we look forward to how we recover from coronavirus, it is the austerity policies of the UK Government that will be thrust upon us. We didn’t have the powers to stop it.

The Greens say that when their proposals are challenged as not competent, they’ll go to court. But am I missing something here? Let’s pretend for a moment the proposal is competent, and that all the tireless anti-Trident campaigners in Parliament and successive Scottish governments just hadn’t realised what the Parliament could and 
could not do. By the time such a proposal is included in the Programme for Government, an amendment to legislation is put through Parliament, and then progress into court action, you would at the earliest be in 2024.

Why would a party – or indeed a parliament that is serious about delivering independence – spend so much time trying to achieve the unachievable, when with the powers of independence our Scots Parliament can achieve anything it wants?
Only with the powers of Scottish independence will we rid weapons of mass destruction from Scotland.

That is one of many reasons that the voters in the upcoming Scottish elections must choose a new parliament that is serious about delivering independence – not one that wants to waste time tinkering with the limited powers of devolution.

Chris McEleny is an Alba Party candidate in the West Scotland region at the Scottish Parliament election on May 6