It’s been a turbulent week in the global economy as the US president launched a global and seemingly indiscriminate suite of trade tariffs, throwing political and business elites into total panic.
Whilst it has been amusing to watch such figures biting their nails as a clearly irrational despot toys with the global economic system, the whole scenario once again shines light on the extent to which the UK is vassalized by the United States.
Certain world leaders have responded with relative strength to the latest Trump debacle. For example, Spanish PM Pedro Sanchez has already pledged a €14.1bn support package for Spanish industries affected by the tariffs, arguing that the EU should deploy a package of counter-tariffs against the US to protect its economic interests.
Meanwhile, UK government is launching a four-week ‘consultation‘ on how to respond to the economic hostility from the US. But how much resistance to Trump’s belligerent manoeuvres can we expect from a UK government which is hostage to Washington’s whims?
As Scottish CND executive member Bill Ramsay has argued in today’s edition of The National, any British negotiating team sitting across from their American counterparts finds themselves between a rock and a hard place. The ‘rock’ is a hostile and erratic US administration, disparaging and cynical of the European continent in general. The ‘hard place’ is the UK’s Trident nuclear programme, which as we know is strictly dependent on US assent for its basic functioning.
The UK’s nuclear weapons programme is a therefore a devil’s bargain – and the benefits of such a deal to the UK are highly doubtful. As with the UK’s foreign policy, it should be clear that its economic policy is also compromised by the extent of our military dependence on the US.
This makes it all the more ludicrous that unnamed senior figures in the SNP are, apparently, briefing against the party’s long-standing opposition to Trident. There is never a good time to support nuclear weapons – they are abhorrent in and of themselves as the most indiscriminate and destructive weapons ever created my human beings. For the SNP to about-face on this issue, at a time when Trident is repeatedly being exposed as a ball and chain tying the country to US subservience, would be acutely irrational.
The existing nuclear submarines are well past their shelf-life, their replacements are overdue and their construction reportedly plagued with logistical and technical obstacles. The cost involved in replacing the UK’s nuclear programme is obscene and continues to spiral out of control. This comes whilst the UK government is slashing billions from international aid and domestic social safety spending. Any serious nationalist platform in Scotland must abandon this heinous logic, and present a programme for economic revitalisation over warfare.
Whatever the war-hawks may squawk, the case against nuclear weapons must be restated now more than ever!
With thanks, as ever, for your commitment and support,
Scottish Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament