Sarwar should focus on Scottish jobs, not attacking Starmer

SCOTLAND PROSPERS from the defence of the UK. Soon it should do even better. The increasing Russian threat and a diminishing American interest in Europe mean that expansion of the defence budget is now accepted, if not yet implemented. When (or if) it is, more money will flow into Scotland.

The Royal Navy desperately needs more frigates (a naval refrain since the days of Pepys and Nelson). Two frigate construction programmes are underway. BAe Systems is building eight £1 billion Type 26 frigates on the River Clyde. Babcock is building five (considerably cheaper) Type 31 frigates at Rosyth. Both types are winning export orders.

These thirteen British vessels are intended to replace the fleet of (originally) sixteen Type 23 frigates, of which just seven remain. The maths doesn’t stack up; the Navy needs more seaworthy frigates, and it needs them now. The Type 23s are already long past their design life. How long they can function, let alone deter the Russians (or anyone else), is a matter of increasing concern.

Political instability adds to the moron premium that the markets demand of UK debt

The new frigates were ordered before the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Since then, we’ve had four Prime Ministers, at least as many Secretaries of State for Defence, two governments and one risible defence review. None has yet delivered the necessary orders for extra warships. Worse, shipbuilding capacity hasn’t increased, which is essential if the Type 23s are not just to be replaced but the Royal Navy’s fleet expanded to get close to the size necessary.

It’s not just frigates. The current Type 45 air defence destroyers will need replacing in the 2030s. Preliminary design on a replacement, the Type 83, is underway. It must accelerate to meet the 2030 deadline. Then there are the River Class Offshore Patrol Vessels, currently flying the White Ensign from the Pacific to the Gulf and the Falkland Islands (because we ran out of frigates). Lightly armed and cheap as chips, they don’t have much in the way of combat power. A replacement, or even more of the same, would be ideal for hosting subsea drones to protect the cable and pipeline infrastructure upon which this nation depends. (They would also be quite handy for their original purpose, protecting fishing grounds, if the UK ever had a government that played hardball with the EU).

Then there are bases. The nuclear deterrent lives in Faslane, with its missiles kept in Loch Long. RAF Lossiemouth holds anti-submarine P-8 Poseidon squadrons, as well as airborne early warning (when the E8 Wedgetail is operational) and four squadrons of Typhoon fighters. There used to be a second base at Leuchars, but it’s been discontinued. Runways are vulnerable so Leuchars should be reopened. The increased threat to the Arctic and the vital Greenland-Iceland-UK gap make Scotland a vital part of the UK’s defence.

Or it would be had this benighted government published its Defence Investment Plan. Due last autumn, postponed to January, we’re now unlikely to see it until the (very) late spring. Absent that, no investment can be announced. Without it the UK’s defence base will continue to flatline (at best).

Manufacturing is already battling with rising employment costs, increasing taxes and the highest electricity price on the planet. Notwithstanding Scotland’s extensive wind farms, Ed Miliband’s net zero delusion is destroying the economy and landscape, as well as the occasional raptor. Labour’s delusions are piling upon the failures of Holyrood. Plus, of course, there is no money; Rachel Reeves has less chance of balancing the budget than she has of winning an Olympic figure skating medal. The UK’s borrowing costs will therefore increase and the funds for defence infrastructure will become harder to find.

Anas Sarwar’s assault on the Prime Minister is therefore irresponsible, inexplicable and inexcusable. Political instability adds to the moron premium that the markets demand of UK debt, thereby reducing the availability of MoD cash to splash in Scotland. That costs jobs. Sarwar should have demanded of the Westminster cabal where the money was for Scottish jobs building and supporting British warships. That would have differentiated him without damaging the bond markets.

As economic reality starts to bite Holyrood and Westminster, Sarwar’s Labour Party is being squeezed. Like so many on the left, rather than come up with sensible policies, he’s played the man.

Meanwhile the Scottish Nationalists famously have problems with shipbuilding. They abhor nuclear weapons and military bases. Miliband has wrecked their maths by ending North Sea oil. (Accounting is another SNP weakness). The Greens like wind and independence and hate nuclear weapons or power. They can’t count either. Lib Dems reluctantly accept the nuclear deterrent, are pro-Union and almost numerate. The Tories are pro-nuclear and pro-Union, albeit tarnished by 20 years of failure in Westminster. Reform is pro-union, pro-nuclear and anti-Westminster, pragmatic and new.

Like Starmer, Sawar is yesterday’s man.