JOHN Reid is predictably alarmist in his threats of job losses in the Ministry of Defence in Scotland after independence.
In its defence policy the SNP budgeted for a predicted 9850 MoD civilians, with the proviso that in the transition period MoD personnel in Scotland would have the option of retaining their existing jobs or being retrained and/or redeployed in the Scottish Civil Service - ie, there would be no job losses.
HMNB Clyde has already developed its skill base from exclusively nuclear work to the support of minesweepers and patrol craft previously based at Rosyth. As Faslane will be the main fleet base for the SDF navy, this work will increase.
Perpetuating the myth of separate defence industries is nonsense: European defence industries are co-operating to compete with US firms. Almost all tenders for MoD work include foreign inputs. So long as Scottish defence firms are producing high-quality competitive products, they will sell to military customers. Pilkington at Govan and GEC/Marconi in Edinburgh are world leaders in their respective fields.
One wonders how many defence job cuts there will be as a result of Labour's current Strategic Defence Review.
Colin Campbell,
SNP Defence Spokesperson,
Braeside, Shuttle Street, Kilbarchan.
May 5.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article