Letters: Trident does not keep us safe: we are a bigger target than ever

Mr McKay clearly has a short memory. The Twin Towers attack in 2001 was perpetrated against the most heavily armed (nuclear) force in human history. Numerous terror attacks have also occurred in the UK, despite our own massive nuclear arsenal.

And if it is "extremist" countries Mr McKay wishes to refer to, he need look no further than home. The recent invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan were both human and political catastrophes, and the result of US attempts at world domination, which our own "extremist" government insisted on tagging along with.

Our nuclear arsenal has proved useless in all departments, and we are, in fact, a bigger target from "extremists" than we have ever been in our history.

Kevin Orr, Bishopbriggs.

WOULD WE WANT TO SURVIVE?

NOBODY but nobody has used a nuclear bomb in anger since the United States used them in 1945 to sacrifice thousands of Japanese non-combatants as a warning to the USSR. Despite there being an unending stream of wars since 1945 and many of the nations involved being "nuclear powers" nobody has been stupid enough to use the weapon, as the concept of mutual annihilation is abhorrent.

The question is if some cretin were to use one whether we, the proles, if we survived would want to live in some post-apocalyptic wasteland of a country; I doubt any of us would. I’m sure that those billions of people living in countries who have no nuclear weapons feel exactly the same.

War no matter how it is portrayed is always about protecting the wealth and power of the Establishment and that is why we have Trident. Any other explanation is bovine anal discharge.

David J Crawford, Glasgow.

AN OPPORTUNITY FOR ENGLAND, TOO

IT is good to know that the Ministry of Defence is preparing for Scottish independence and is trying to identify other locations for Trident ("MP: Faslane will not be a ‘nuclear Guantanamo’ in event of independence", The Herald, September 3). If they had only asked Scottish CND, we could have helped them since we had already produced a technical report on this: Trident: Nowhere to Go.

Relocating to France is hardly viable, apart from the trauma it would cause the Conservative faithful to be totally dependent on the French President for their biggest status symbol. The French nuclear base in Brittany is not big enough to take the larger Trident submarines. There would have to be a major extension and a new warhead depot. There would also be issues around breaching Article 1 of the Non-Proliferation Treaty.

Relocation to the US would at least end the pretence that the British Trident is independent. We rent the missiles from them, they go back there for servicing and we only hold sufficient spares for one year. Few people believe that the US does not keep ultimate control over targeting. However US naval expert Norman Polmar said in 2013 that "the logistics of basing British submarines at King's Bay would be so challenging as to rule out the option entirely". That is additional to the constitutional issues in the US involved in the basing of another state's weapons on US territory.

Relocating to Devonport where the submarines are serviced would only be viable if there was a major new development at Falmouth where the facilities now at Coulport such as the warhead depot and the explosives handling jetty would have to be based. This would result in nuclear facilities in the midst of civil population and would take years and great expense.

So this should be an opportunity for our friends in England to recognise that Trident is not about our protection – far from it. It is all about projecting power and status. The great nuclear arms game is one we need to put into reverse. One of the finest things Scotland could do is to make a significant contribution to this.

Isobel Lindsay, Biggar.

COMPARE HOLYROOD AND WESTMINSTER

THE unionist supporters who regularly correspond through your Letters Pages should sit back and examine what has and is happening with their beloved Westminster Government.

The complete shambles of the handling of the Afghan withdrawal is certain to cost many local citizens and their families their lives in revenge for working with the occupying forces. We failed to plan their exit. What was our Foreign Secretary doing? Oh sorry, he was on holiday and his boss said it was OK for him to stay.

We can then examine the handling of Covid, where our borders were left open to allow an influx of people from India carrying the new variant. It is now the dominant strain in the UK. No amount of money from the UK Treasury makes up for this stupidity which has cost lives through the UK.

The Brexit shambles is now biting hard. A major shortage of HGV drivers is threatening the supply chains to business and retail alike. What mitigating solutions are being applied by the UK Government? Answer, none.

We also have a shortage of skilled workers in kitchens, crop harvesting and general hospitality but no sign of steps being taken to deal with this crisis. There is much much more.

The Scottish Government is far from perfect but by comparison works as well as the present devolution agreement permits.

Dave Biggart, Kilmacolm.

CHALLENGE FOR SNP ON POVERTY

HAVING been given her cue at First Minister's Questions through a question posed by one of her backbenchers, Nicola Sturgeon was given the stage to rant about UK ministers pushing people into poverty through the “cut” of £20 in Universal Credit.

First, the ending of this £20 is not a cut, as it was an uplift which came into force in March 2020 to help new claimants dealing with the impact of the Covid pandemic. It was always known to be for one year as announced by Rishi Sunak. At the time none of us could have anticipated that we would still be dealing with its impact a year later, at which time the Chancellor extended it by another six months. It was never meant to be a permanent measure, as Ms Sturgeon well knows.

Secondly and much more importantly, it is within the Scottish Government’s remit to alleviate any impact that is caused by the removal of this £20 uplift. In a blog to the Poverty Alliance in May this year, Nicola Sturgeon claimed that tackling poverty has always been a priority for the SNP. She also committed to using the powers they have.

Time will therefore tell if she will put our money where her mouth is and use Scottish taxpayer funds to negate the impact on claimants.

Jane Lax, Aberlour.

BLAME TODAY'S IRAN ON BIG OIL

I ENJOYED Struan Stevenson’s article ("How an amoral agreement by oil bosses, signed at a Highland castle 100 years ago, still shapes our world", The Herald, September 3). Big Oil has a lot to answer for when it comes to current problems around the world, and not just in respect to climate change. It’s a pity Mr Stevenson didn’t make a brief mention of Iran, a country he fulminates against regularly.

For decades, the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company syphoned off Iran’s oil wealth, while the bulk of the population lived in dire poverty. That changed when the democratically-elected Prime Minister, Mohammad Mossadegh, nationalised the company in 1951. Britain plotted a coup but failed, so they turned to the US for help. The line they peddled was the old staple: if a politician like Mossadegh was left in power, before long Communists would be in control.

The US willingly swallowed that line and in 1953 the CIA overthrew Mossadegh in a coup. The Shah tightened his grip on power and wasted Iran’s wealth on fripperies, while the Majlis, the fledgling Iranian parliament, was rendered powerless. And so things remained until 1979, when the many, diverse opposition groups in Iran decided that anything and anyone was better than the Shah, and brought Ayatollah Khomeini back from Paris.

In 1953, Iran was well on the way to being a full parliamentary democracy. The fact that it’s now a theocracy arises from the role of Big Oil and its influence on the governments of the UK and US. In the short term, the coup kept oil and profits flowing, but I doubt if anyone would claim that the long-term outcome has been good for the people of Iran or for the rest of the world.

Douglas Maughan, Dunblane.