Meeting of the Parliament 05 March 2024
I am just coming on to why that would be the case. The paper does not propose having any aircraft carriers.
I pay tribute to our excellent armed forces. They are among the best trained anywhere in the world. They are dedicated, brave and a credit to our country. The paper talks about investing in and prioritising “core capabilities”. That is basic stuff but, in the context of the debate, it is particularly important to highlight the UK’s special forces, which are exemplary. The Royal Marines and others have niche capabilities that cannot be replicated from scratch.
So it is with our intelligence services. The paper gives an agency name and a list of core functions—that is fantastic but, frankly, the lack of detail insults the intelligence of the people of Scotland.
The paper points to the example of Estonia as a country smaller than Scotland that has nonetheless developed considerable cybersecurity capacity. However, it fails to mention that Estonia did so over the space of 30 years, under pressure from a growing Russian threat.
I turn to the issue of nuclear capabilities, which seems to confuse the Scottish Government. The Scottish Government has stated in its paper that it intends for Scotland to become a nuclear weapons-free zone. That does not sound compatible with NATO being an explicitly nuclear alliance. It appears to confuse not holding nuclear weapons with explicitly forbidding them from its territory.