Posted on 01/22/2014 9:59:25 AM PST by DesScorp
This year voters in Scotland will decide whether to remain within the United Kingdom. Scottish sovereignty rides on two things: any eventual negotiations between London and Edinburgh and the gradually evolving position of the Scottish National Party, the primary backer of the independence bid. And if it happens, the resulting military reform is going to be a mess. If the vote is yay, the most optimistic date for negotiations is March 2016, but it isn’t out of the question that sticking points could push this back. Defense could be one of those points.
In its white paper on a newly independent Scotland, the SNP lists the potential new country’s needs in its first 10 years. The paper calls for an annual military budget of around £2.3 billion—$4.1 billion—with a standing army, navy and air force with 15,000 personnel.
It also declares that existing Scottish regiments would carry on their names, identities and traditions—and that those lost in previous defense re-organizations would be brought back.
Scotland would reposition its defense posture towards patrolling the coast, the North Atlantic and the North Sea and defending its maritime assets—specifically fishing grounds and oil. Scotland hopes to acquire 12 Eurofighter Typhoons from the Royal Air Force, two frigates from the Royal Navy’s current fleet and several offshore patrol vessels such as the current River class being built for the U.K. by BAE systems.
More at the link...
(Excerpt) Read more at medium.com ...
Very true unless they do what certain other countries have done re the might of the USA. Just sat back and say "The Americans will protect us". Fortunately NATO has indeed shouldered some of the burden.
I, having worked and travelled in Scotland and treated handsomely in spite of being a "Sassanach",fear another entity. It is the entrenched bureaucrat. From the billions given to say Africa, aid to Haiti and so on, the bureaucrat has "first dibs".
Scotland wanted a new parliament building and rightly so. The initial estimated cost was 40 million pounds (about $60 million dollars. The final cost was 414 million pounds and was started in 1999 and finished 2004.
The Welsh people were mulling over separation at one time from England. In 1966 a huge coal tip overlooked Aberfan. The rain permeated it and hit sloshed down to the town. 144 kids and 5 teachers died. An immense fund was contributed to. The bureaucrats got hold of it. The mine company tapped the fund for 150,000 pounds to clean up the tip. The grieving parents were asked by the bureaucrats; " how close were you to your child?" This to evaluate compensation. I stand to be corrected, but the real victims got but little.
Later a shamefaced Mining Board refunded the money- much later. I know this is a bit of an off topic ramble, but even in Canada, millions are handed out to Indian reserves. There are cases of chiefs taking most of the monies- any attempt to audit is met with cries of "racists". They are now called First Nations.
The rain permeated it and it sloshed down to the town.
“They’re actually going to be expecting the UK to do most of the heavy lifting when it comes to the defence of an ‘independent’ Scotland.”
The few pro-independence Scots I know look more to the EU for future defence rather than the UK, but either way, the Scots will be biting off more than they can chew. Without UK $$ proping up their socialist institutions, they’re going to be much poorer than they’ve become accostumed to. And one cannot eat nationalism.
Gadzooks!
King Edward I would invade Scotland!
Looks like they’re really going through with it this time. Good luck to you, Scotland. I hope you’ve learned from British errors, and our errors too.
Yes, that’s my heritage, except my grandmother whose father was Luxemburger. But Ive often suspected that they were really German and fudged it because of anti-German sentiment during World War I.
The Brits might have to beef up Hadrian’s Wall...
For one thing there would be no Edinburgh Military Tattoo. It'd be a shame to lose it.
Oh, and there's no such thing as the "Royal Army".
OMG - no chance.
Although the SNP gets all the attention, the fact is that there is a lot of pro-Union sentiment in Scotland too, especially in the south west.
Nationalism killed the British Empire. As well as paying for two World Wars. Welfare is what happened after.
So who really lost their national consciousness in the Union?
I am not up to speed on Scottish politics.
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