INSIGHT
For the defence
Rory Cahill and Richard Johnstone examine the importance of the Union to Scotland’s defence industry
I
t’s the week before the long-awaited
referendum and soldiers serving in
Scottish units receive a press release from
the SNP, signed by Alex Salmond. In the
event the referendum approves Scottish
independence, will the soldiers join the
new Scottish Defence Service, he asks?
Elsewhere people living near RAF
bases like Leuchars and Kinloss watch
as Tornados and Nimrods take off one
after another, heading south to bases in
England. The Secretary of Defence has
ordered the planes out of the country to
ensure that the billions of pounds worth
of hardware are not used as bargaining
chips, or even seized, by a newly-inde-
pendent Scotland.
On the day of the vote itself, soldiers
take up discreet but unmistakable posi-
tions on MoD land. Their posture is not
threatening but the message is clear. If
Scotland does become independent, the
UK considers this to be its property. We
don’t know whether these events will
come to pass in the event that a referen-
dum is held in 2010, but we do know that
when Quebec voted in its referendum to bases like Kinloss? Would shipyards on a £1,325m contract for the construction
in 1995, the separatist Parti Quebecois the Clyde and Forth still get MoD con- of giant sections of both ships by BVT
did lobby soldiers to join a new Quebec tracts? Would Scots be allowed to serve Surface Fleet at Govan on the Clyde and
defence force and the Federal Govern- in the armed forces of the remainder of Portsmouth, and £675m for the bow
ment removed all the CF-18 fighter jets the UK? And equally important, if the section and final assembly and comple-
based in the province for fear they would constitutional settlement doesn’t change, tion of the ships by Babcock Marine,
be held by the separatists. what does the future hold? What comes with assembly taking place at Rosyth.
Some in Quebec believe that the after the aircraft carriers for our ship- But other projects are deemed to
separatists lost the referendum – which yards? Does our defence industry really be not purely military, like the Military
was decided by less than a percentage need to remain in the Union to thrive? Afloat Reach and Sustainability (MARS)
point – when people previously in favour Take the defence industry first. As vessels, which will provide long-term
of independence recognised, after see- it stands, European law allows countries logistics support to the maritime forces
ing the jets in the sky or troops securing to exclude defence procurement projects operating at sea, and as such, are put up
bases, the hard facts of what indepen- from normal tendering processes, allow- to Europe-wide tender where Scottish
dence would mean. Defence was the ing them to give all the work to local firms are often undercut, such as when
issue that crystallised the debate in vot- firms. In shipbuilding terms, these proj- Ferguson shipbuilders lost out on a Scot-
ers’ minds. ects are known as ‘gray ships’ to reflect tish Executive contract in 2005 to build
So, as the proposed date for a Scot- the traditional hue of military vessels a fishery protection vessel to the Remon-
tish independence referendum creeps up and the new aircraft carriers set to be tawa yard in Gdansk.
on us, what would independence mean built on the Clyde and at Rosyth are per- At first glance, this arrangement
in the context of Scotland’s defence and fect examples – contracts were formally would seem to guarantee that the
related industries? What would happen signed in July including confirmation of defence industry in Scotland, which gets
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www.holyrood.com | Holyrood magazine | 17 November 2008 |
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