SNP’s Trident policy plays into Putin’s hands

But now we face a hot war with Putin’s Russia - a regime as dangerous as 1930s' Germany - I can no longer espouse disarmament. To disarm, would be madness. Suicide. 

I’m aware what I say here will upset many in Scotland. Indeed, I upset myself. I don’t want to defend nuclear weapons, but times have changed, so ideas must change also.

Dictators view goodness as weakness. Evidently, it would be ‘good’ to get rid of the bomb - it would be ‘good’ to get rid of every weapon on Earth - but not when a despot butchers Ukraine, and eyes our eastern European allies.

'Disarmament would intensify Putin’s aggression' (Image: free)

I want a world free of nuclear weapons, but that cannot happen, at least for now. Indeed, if Ukraine had maintained its nuclear arsenal after the fall of Communism, Russia wouldn’t have invaded. I understand why others still cleave to disarmament, but for now I cannot.

For disarmament to happen, the world must be on a path to peace, not global war. For pity’s sake, we even have a modern-day axis - a pact of steel - between Russia, China, Iran and North Korea.

When the war is over - as the old song goes - I can return to the comfort of my pacifism. But I cannot support disarmament when the West may one day find itself in conflict with Russia. Disarmament would intensify Putin’s aggression.

Throughout the western world the conversation around disarmament is entirely abstract, as there’s no likelihood of it happening. However, that’s not the case in Scotland. Although the SNP faces defeat at the General Election, the path to disarmament in Scotland exists.

If the SNP was to ever find itself in a position where it has a large enough majority to demand and achieve another referendum, then removal of Trident from Scotland becomes a reality - if the Yes side was to win evidently.

There’s clearly many hurdles here: a limping party winning enough seats to demand a referendum, gaining that referendum, and then winning that referendum. But in a world which witnessed Brexit and Trump, nothing can be ruled out anymore.

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My sense of cognitive dissonance is strong, I confess, as not only have I voted SNP, but I also voted Yes and may possibly do so again should another referendum materialise.

I caveat my independence support with that word ‘possibly’, as should a referendum take place while Putin is in power and breathing down Europe’s neck, I couldn’t vote Yes if a Yes vote was taken as a mandate for Trident removal.

The SNP’s Trident policy is absurd. It’s not the party’s idealism around nuclear disarmament that’s ridiculous. It’s the notion that Scotland could somehow throw Trident out, destabilising Britain’s nuclear deterrent, and then just blithely join Nato. That won’t and shouldn’t happen.

Britain and France are Europe’s two nuclear powers. It’s a vital choke-chain on Putin. Those weapons keep him in check. To chuck Trident out of Scotland, would cause chaos when it comes to European security.

How might Putin survey the western alliance, in a post-independence world, as the remainder of the UK scuttles around trying to find a base for nuclear submarines.

There’s also something craven about the arguments for Trident removal. ‘Let’s take the target off Scotland’s back’, the mantra goes. Security among democracies is shared. Scotland has benefited from shared security, and should have the integrity to maintain support for shared security.

Vladimir Putin (Image: free)

Nor do nuclear weapons recognise borders. Radiation from a bomb hitting London isn’t subject to passport control.

I understand why the SNP cleaves to its disarmament policy, but I don’t respect its failure to debate the matter given the Ukraine invasion. When facts change, when events change, the wise change. That can be harsh and unpleasant, but failure to change reeks more of hidebound ideology than intelligence. Integrity demands growth, and growth demands introspection.

The SNP is currently firing pot-shots at the Scottish Labour MP Ian Murray around the issue of change and nuclear disarmament. Let me preface this by saying that Murray is most certainly capable of defending himself, nor is he someone I’m particularly drawn to as a politician. Whether he intends it or not, he appears arrogant, divisive and belligerent, rather than open and respectful of difference. So I’m in no rush to speak for him.

However, the SNP’s upbraiding of him is intellectually weak, to say the least. Murray, you see, refers to himself as a ‘lifelong’ opponent of nuclear weapons. However, if he becomes the next Scottish secretary, he joins a government committed to Britain’s nuclear deterrent.

The SNP’s defence spokesman, Martin Docherty-Hughes - who Scotland seldom hears from on security matters - decried Labour’s “philosophical somersaults required to square their ‘aye but naw but’ approach to the horrors of nuclear weapons”.

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Let’s side-step the irony of the SNP commenting on ‘philosophical somersaults’ (does anyone understand its policy on net zero and North Sea energy?), and maybe ask whether Murray is the one who’s right. If Murray has changed his position on Trident - and I don’t know if he has - then it makes sense.

There are many like me who detest nuclear weapons, would love to see them consigned to history, but for now recognise the role they play in defending democracy.

I’m certainly not suggesting the SNP is appeasing Putin - though there’s some in the Yes movement happy on their knees to dictators. John Swinney rightly lambasts Nigel Farage over claims the west “provoked” Putin - sentiments I share.

But there’s a spectrum here. Some across the west - Trump’s MAGA battalions, for example - may give Putin deliberate, active succour, while others risk giving accidental, passive assistance to Russia. Removing Trident from Scotland would do just that.

The policy may come from a place of peace and decency, but it would be manna from heaven for a blood-soaked butcher like Putin.