NO TO NATO

Whilst the inner circles of the SNP gyre and gimble over the various scenarios thrown up by the media and anti-Independence parties over the question of adopting NATO membership, as a sop to soft unionists, perhaps it's time to consider what we already have in the ways of nuclear technology and other weapons of mass destruction.

Coulport, once a high falutin' resort for Victorian Glaswegians who fancied a wee jaunt doon ra watter, once housed the Kibble Palace, the beautiful giant greenhouse in the West end's Botanic Gardens. Since 1963 and the aftermath of the Cuban missile crisis, it's been home to the UK's Polaris and then Trident nuclear warheads. It's a mere thirty miles from our largest population in Glasgow. West of Glasgow we also have the former RNAD Beith, now known as DM Beith, the DM stands for Defence Munitions, it's also long been known as the largest arms dump in Western Europe. Today it processes and stores Brimstone, Spearfish, Storm Shadow and Tomahawk missiles. If it went up, there'd be an almighty hole called Kilmarnock Bay. A friend who lived in Barrmill used to speak about the train drivers using the exclusive munitions rail line, stopping the train at the bridge and getting out for a walk up to the wee shop for their paper and a Mars bar, leaving said weapons laden train unattended... 

I first became aware of Holy Loch-Coulport-Faslane as an entity, when for a birthday treat I was taken to the local fleapit to watch 'Ice Station Zebra' starring Patrick McGoohan as the 'sneaky bastard involved in some sort of low skullduggery' besting the Soviets and out acting the tall, but dumb, Rock Hudson skipper of the USS Tigerfish submarine. Delighted to find a connection with Scotland, I was intrigued by the opening scene with McGoohan arriving late at night on the foggy Holy Loch and somehow invested some juvenile pride in Scotland being integral to such a huge movie. I was a tad miffed to discover year later, that the film production, despite the book being written by Scot Alastair McLean, never set foot outside California, with all the exterior naval scenes being shot at an err foggy US navy base in San Diego...



The scene above talks about how close the alleged 'superpowers' come to pushing the nuclear button. The very thought of it is obscene, deaths on an unimaginable scale and a poisoned planet, all because two political ideologies can't find compromise. McGoohan's character explains in great detail that accidents don't happen on nuclear subs, that safety is paramount and guaranteed, due to the huge amounts of money paid. All very good all very 1960's Cold War propaganda, particularly as the US Department of Defence objected to earlier drafts of the script.

Fast forward forty odd years and the reality that we still have nuclear weapons is just plain nuts. The fact that we haven't all been blown to bits is cited as their success as a deterrent. Right wingers here and the USA shriek about rogue nations having the ability to build nuclear warheads. They've got a bit of catching up to do as the supposed non-rogue nations already have an estimated TWENTY-THREE THOUSAND nuclear warheads.

The question for the SNP is not whether we can join NATO as a non nuclear hosting country, which has smacks of the old aiding and abetting charge about it, the question should simply be how soon are we going to lead the world by abolishing all nuclear weapons from our own country.

Examples of Fukishima, Chernobyl and the Kursk submarine show that where nuclear is concerned accident, miscalculation, and madness are all part of the scenario. As we all know, low probability events occur in everyday life, all the time, add nuclear annihilation into the mix and the potential outcomes are just that wee bit more serious. 


I recently watched Lucy Walker's incredible documentary 'Countdown to Zero'. As a film it is one of the scariest films I've ever seen, it grabs you by the balls and squeezes until you understand the folly of what nuclear weapons are and just how close the horror of human error and system malfunction have brought us to the edge of nuclear disaster on numerous occasions. 




Another example of the near miss is the story of Lt.Col. Stanislav Petrov
have a read at his story without gulping.  


There are 193 states in the UN, only nine of them have nuclear weapons. Why would an Independent Scotland want to be part of that warmongering minority?