Scottish Catholic Observer

In an article published in a Scottish Sunday newspaper, Professor William Walker of St Andrews University claimed that the Scottish National Party has been reluctant to address nuclear disarmament in Government despite it being central to the party’s policies.

In the report, Professor Walker suggested several obstacles that included bilateral support from London during early independence, relations with Nato members such as America and France and the costs of decommissioning Trident and establishing its replacement outside Scotland.

“As the referendum approaches, it may be trumpeted as one of independence’s great prizes,” Professor Walker writes. “So far, however, the SNP has not had to explain how and when Trident’s removal could be achieved and how the costs and benefits would stack up.”

The Scottish Government has responded to his points.

“The vast majority of MSPs, as well as the churches, trade unions, and civic society across the nation totally oppose Trident nuclear weapons being based in Scotland—and in the last Westminster Parliament a majority of Scottish MPs opposed the renewal of Trident,” Angus Robertson, SNP defence spokesman.

“A key advantage of independence is that it is the only constitutional option which gives Scotland the powers to have Trident removed from Scottish waters, and we believe that the Westminster Government will wish to act on this and withdraw Trident as quickly as possible in these welcome circumstances.”

Cardinal Keith O’Brien, a well known and an outspoken opponent of Trident, urged the UK government to give up its ‘shameful’ nuclear weapon programme at a demonstration outside Faslane naval base on Gare Loch last year where he said ‘there is no better place to say that it is not courageous of Britain to have these dreadful weapons of mass destruction.’

“I have been speaking of the teaching of the Catholic Church on nuclear weapons for many years now, telling our message to whoever is willing to listen, and I am very pleased to repeat that teaching again,” he added.

“It is a consistent teaching, a central part of our pro-life stance, that has human dignity at its very core. And it is a message I am all the more glad to repeat here at the gates of Faslane.”

Pic: Cardinal Keith O’Brien at Faslane naval base, by Paul McSherry.