Originally Posted by
matkat
Kluseau the first part of your post I totally agree with the second I do not the SNP is a democratically elected government in this country with a mandate to govern it disappoints me when I hear people criticising Salmon for what is perceived as his personal agenda because being democratically elected by the Scottish people then it follows that he has the people support for his policies.
Oddly enough, my post wasn't intended as criticism of Salmond, who I view as the second most adept politician currently in post anywhere in these islands (the first being his deputy Nicola Sturgeon). Like him or loathe him, he runs rings around most of his contemporaries. The SNP have beaten the odds (and an electoral system specifically designed to avoid single party government in Scotland) because when they got the chance they governed pretty well and pretty sensibly in difficult times.
But the point is that the SNP have no mandate in respect of any defence policy. Defence is a matter reserved to the UK Government (at present), so it did not feature especially significantly as an issue in the last Scottish parliamentary elections.
It has only become a real issue because of the possibility of independence. Coming from a standing start the SNP have struggled with defence, as the document this thread is about makes clear. That seems pretty inevitable in the circumstances, and is why I think the document might actually help. But as I said in my last post, the UK government have also fouled up their defence policy over the same period, and they don't have the excuse of any lack of background, experience or so-called expert advice on the subject.
Turning to the question of which way the vote will go, the main forces in favour of independence are the extent to which Scots truly want to define their own destiny (or not); plus the increasingly strong push to disengage from the most divisive, destructive and inept Whitehall government in a generation; ably supported by moronic scare stories generated by the "no" camp over things like mobile phones (more expensive in an independent Scotland, allegedly) and the Royal Mail (now haven't they been looked after well by the current UK government?) Will these factors be enough to bring about an independent Scotland? I don't know, and neither does anyone else. But it will be interesting finding out...