IN the recent parliamentary debate, SNP MPs were of course very vocal in their condemnation of the renenwal of Trident. This was despite the fact that one of their number – George Kerevan – was once a newspaper columnist fully in its favour, and that another – Tasmina Ahmed-Sheikh – once actually stood as a candidate for the (pro-Trident) Tory party.
A further interesting feature of the debate was the condemnation of the morality of (or lack thereof) of nuclear weapons themselves, although no SNP MP was able to explain away how they squared such moral certainty with their own advocacy of continuing membership of Nato – a first strike nuclear alliance.
Indeed, in true “Don’t tell ‘im Pike” fashion, the game was given away on social media by Councillor Mhairi Hunter, who is also Nicola Sturgeon’s office manager: she tweeted that “we’d be in Nato because it is one less barrier to independence”.
This admirably frank admission does us all a favour by demonstrating two things about the SNP. The first is that there is no issue which it does not see in terms of independence.
The second is that there is no length they will not go to in bending its “morality” if they think it will further that same aim. Indeed, in this case the SNP will support nuclear first strike capability Nato if it makes independence a bit easier.
Peter A Russell,
Planet Pedro! 