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3 August 2013

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Trident nuclear missiles heading for Belfast Lough?

Angus Robertson MP, SNP Defence spokesperson, told An Phoblacht: ‘Removing Trident is an absolutely red line issue following independence’

DO the Six Counties still have some residual strategic value to the Westminster state?

After the mayhem and the policing bill of the weekend of ‘The Twalfth’ then the answer might be a confident ‘no’.

However, there is one scenario where the chaps in Whitehall may find a use for the territory they currently control on the north-east of this island.

One of the key statements at the start of the Irish Peace Process was on 9 November 1990 when British secretary of State Sir Peter Brooke stated that Britain had no “selfish strategic or economic interest” in the North of Ireland.

Moreover, Brooke stated in that speech that the British would accept unification if the people of the northern statelet so wished it.

Brooke’s speech undoubtedly paved the way for the Downing Street Declaration in December 1993.

Of course, the inclusion of the word “selfish” did at the time give me pause for thought.

Did it mean that there could be some strategic interest that, in the opinion of the British Government was somehow ‘unselfish’?

Like maybe if Scotland votes ‘Yes’ to independence in the September 2014 referendum?

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With that in mind I find it interesting that there was a senior deputation to Belfast Harbour Board in May 2013 by chaps from Babcock International (“defence engineerng support services organisation”) accompanied by a very senior Royal Navy officer.

The purpose of their visit was to assess Belfast Lough as a possible new home for Westminster’s nuclear missile submarines currently based on the Clyde in Scotland.

Other possible new homes in Britain have proven problematic because of the narrowness of the channel and the depth of the water.

Belfast Lough is quite similar to Faslane and the high-powered deputation went away very happy.

This story was broken on 15 July by this journalist on www.philmacgiollabhain.ie and it has not been denied by any British Government source or by Babcock since then.

Should Scotland vote ‘Yes’ in 2014 then Westminster will have to find a new home for their Armageddon toy.

The Ministry of Defence recently floated the idea that the Faslane area could remain “sovereign UK territory” (like its Cyprus bases) even if Scotland voted for independence.

Even Tory Prime Minister David Cameron shot this idea down but it does show that senior warlords in London are concerned about what to do with the nuclear force if Scotland becomes a free nation.

The cost of relocating Trident from the west of Scotland to another naval base has been thrown up as another reason to vote ‘No’ next year.

The fact that Britain’s independent nuclear deterrent is neither British, independent nor a deterrent seems to be lost on unionists in Scotland as much as it is on the war-mongers in Westminster.

It is an American system controlled via the guidance system from the USA and this is something that the chaps around Number 10 are very sensitive about.

The 58 Trident II D-5 ballistic missiles operated by the Royal Navy (from four Vanguard-class submarines) are manufactured and maintained by them and they provide the satellite intelligence to target them.

There is no scenario where a British Prime Minister could give the order to launch them without authorisation from the US President.

The fact that the British military has an expensive, unusable radioactive firework display under the North Atlantic somewhere doesn’t seem to strike fear into the locals in the Helmand River valley at the moment.

The British nuclear deterrent is a bluff but one that the ruling elite in Westminster seem determined to maintain.

The Scottsih National Party Government is staunchly anti-nuclear and in the SNP’s vision for an independent Scotland the country would have a non-nuclear defensive stance within NATO.

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Angus Robertson MP, SNP Defence spokesperson, told An Phoblacht:

“Removing Trident is an absolutely red line issue following independence.

“The majority of Scots  are opposed to it , as are civic groups, the trades unions, the churches and the overwhelming majority of Scottish MPs and MSPs but it is still dumped on the Clyde near our biggest centre of population.

“It is immoral and grotesquely expensive and we have no idea who it is aimed at.”

Should Scotland vote for independence next year then the ‘UK’ state (what is left of it) will have to find a new berth for its nuclear weapons.

Would the British Government would be open to discussing this recent nuclear visit to Belfast with Sinn Féin representatives?

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