Political decisions can have far reaching and significant, even severe, consequences.
Just over three weeks ago, the UK voted narrowly to leave the European Union — risking Scotland’s position within Europe despite the overwhelming vote to remain we saw north of the border. David Cameron must rue the day he ever thought a referendum presented a quick fix to stop the Tory party he led from “banging on about Europe” once and for all.
Leadership demands tough decision making. It demands weighing up the consequences of those decisions and, in some instances, taking risks. But the risk David Cameron took with Brexit was thoughtless and unnecessary, and the history books will write it up as a fatal misjudgement. Cameron lost his job. What the country stands to lose remains to be seen, but already there’s a course set towards fundamental change.
We’re four days into a new era of Tory government at Westminster. While it’s been very much out with the old around the Cabinet table in Number 10, some of her new appointments have raised eyebrows. And that’s an understatement and a half in the case of Boris Johnson.
Something seems fundamentally awry though between Theresa May’s mission statement, her promises outside Downing Street on Wednesday to create a warmer, kinder, cuddlier Tory Party, while she has moved so swiftly to appoint what can only be described as a government on the right of the right. Few observers would call that good news for Scotland.
But the new Prime Minister should ca’ canny.
It’s a bold move to be set out prescribing what sort of unionism is good for us from day one, and she’ll realise pretty soon it’s not a pill that a nation will so easily swallow.
By the same token, tomorrow’s vote on Trident presents a tough early test for the new PM.
While the Westminster sideshow rolls on, with the Labour Party in a state of all consuming disarray, the Tories are menacingly confident about getting the votes they needed to commit the United Kingdom to spending inordinate billions on a new generation of nuclear weapons.
Yesterday in 36 different locations across Scotland, thousands of people joined together against this madness.
It’s valid to reflect on how the consequences of such a thoughtless decision impact more acutely upon Scotland — with the UK’s nuclear fleet and stockpile of atomic weapons housed on the Clyde — but yet only a tiny minority of our elected representatives are in favour of their existence. It’s profoundly unjust.
But there’s an opportunity for Theresa May to show considered, rational, cautious, “thinking” leadership this week, by giving Parliament the time to give due scrutiny to one of the most important decisions it will ever take on the renewal of Trident. To go gung-ho, battering through an early vote on a trajectory and timescale set by her predecessor, the Prime Minister will send a clear signal that she’s very much of the same old Tory ilk — the reckless, unthinking sort which Cameron discovered was to be his undoing.
While Scotland has seemed almost serenely above much of the political turmoil engulfing the rest of the UK these past few weeks, thanks in great measure to the confident leadership of Nicola Sturgeon, there’s much to be said for the merits of taking time to pause for thought.
Trident is immoral, obscene and taking the decision to renew flies in the face of any warm words about a commitment to nuclear disarmament. In fact it’s as this: building new nuclear weapons is proliferation and an abandonment of our global responsibility.
In terms of sheer numbers, we’re facing profound uncertainty in our economy in the wake of Brexit. In that climate, no government in their right mind would be committing to waste £167 billion of taxpayers money on weapons of mass destruction for reasons of vanity as opposed to reasons of defence. This lunacy is compounded with continuing Tory austerity and funding for public services being cut more deeply than ever before.
And the £167 billion is just one of the estimates that the UK government accepts. In actual fact, they have no idea — or are unwilling to say — what the full costs for renewing Trident will end up being over the lifetime of the programme, with some calculations showing the price tag spiralling to over £200 billion. For everyone’s sake, let’s put that money to good use instead of squandering it on this dangerous project.
The SNP will always stand firm against nuclear weapons on the Clyde and will vote against its renewal tomorrow if it comes to that. But it needn’t.
Let’s take some time. Let’s pause for thought.
Let’s see the Prime Minister have the courage to do likewise and delay a vote for further scrutiny and a proper debate — not backing down is a big mistake. And it may well prove a thoughtless decision that comes back to haunt her.
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