Thursday, September 02, 2021

Kaliningrad on the Clyde

Embed from Getty Images

The Mirror reports claims that plans have been drawn up to move Britain's nuclear-armed submarines to the US or France if Scotland votes for independence:

UK government officials have reportedly examined basing them in the US, France or Devonport.

Another option would be creating a British overseas territory within Scotland, it is claimed.

Basing the British deterrent in the US would expose the fiction that it is in any way independent, but it's the last point that interests me here.

The realities of Brexit are pushing this Conservative government into making Britain resemble a Soviet satellite state - empty shelves in the supermarkets, attacks on human rights, subsidies to major industries.

But this would make us resemble the Soviet Union itself. We're talking Kaliningrad on the Clyde here.

What do these "UK government officials" envisage happening if an unarmed Scottish crowd approaches the gates of this rump-UK missile base?

It's no surprise to see the Westminster government making plans, however wrongheaded, for life after Scottish independence.

Conservative moderates had little idea how to argue for British membership  of the European Union, and their colleagues have no idea how to argue for Unionism today.

But then the Tories gave up on the Union back in 2015 when David Cameron won the election by scaring English voters about the prospect of Nicola Sturgeon having an influence on the government at Westminster.

If those English voters think it is unthinkable for the dominant party in Scotland to have a role in the government of the Unite4d Kingdom then the Union is dead.

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