And lynx helicopters

The CVF isn’t going to be ready until what, 2020?

Even if the UK ordered SH tomorrow they wouldn’t be complete for several years as they have to come after USN deliveries. There wouldn’t be a huge gap between having the SH squadrons up and running and the F-35s arriving in numbers, only to have to dump the SH when it is just reaching operational capability. The CVF is bound to be delayed, giving it plenty of time for us to get the F-35Cs in numbers.

It simply isn’t worth going through all the pilot and ground crew training, setting up a logistics and support structure for an aircraft we would only use for a few years at best, let alone the money involved.

Scotland isn’t just a northern county of England you know, but a nation in its own right, whereas the Orkney and Shetland islands have never been countries, so have no internationally recognised territorial waters of their own.
Orkney has been Scottish since the 1400s, and Shetland since the 1600s.

Does that matter?

If you think that people who want to have their own independence should be able to have it, shouldn’t the orkneys, or shetlands, isle of wight or wherever, be allowed it if that’s what they ask for? Why should they have to justify it historically?

Another thing that seems to be a ridiculous argument is the view of Scotland being ‘ruled by London’. If the UK parliament decided to change venue and meet in Edinburgh does that suddenly mean that England is ‘ruled by Edinburgh’? Scots MP have just as much say in Parliament (in fact more so given the westlothian question) as MPs from anywhere else.

Yes, many of the matters addressed there might be more relevant to England, but that’s where most people in the UK live. Most people in Scotland live in the South of the country, so I imagine the Scottish Parliament is mostly concerned with these areas, does this mean the highlands should go independent from the rest of Scotland?

The governments that served the Scottish people, and that were voted into office by Scottish people, did decide on a nuclear deterrent though, and Scotland has enjoyed its protection as much as any other part of the UK.

In any case, I’m sure there are a variety of views about the nuclear deterrent within Scotland itself and the UK as a wider entity, it isn’t a case of pro-nuclear England forcing its ways on anti-nuclear Scotland.

Imagine if Scottish taxpayers had to pay 90% of the costs for an Oil terminal in northern England, then when independence happening the English deciding they never wanted it anyway and demanded Scotland pay to clean up all the pollution and decommissioning costs.

I heard part of the discussion turned to the nuclear base at Faslane.

Alex Salmond thought it preposterous that Scotland should be asked to choke up any money for its decommissioning, but it seems to me that he wants to have his cake and eat it too.

Scottish taxpayers have paid for (by a population based guestimate) a bit under 10% of the total armed forces budget for the UK, and so if they choose independence should be granted a similar amount of hardware to do with as they will. This only seems fair.

But it also means that they are gaining several assets, such as Faslane, of which they are only 10% shareholders. If they want to take over this and tell the rest of the UK to leave, then they either have to reimburse 90% of the costs of the facility, or have it count towards their total settlement. Why should taxpayers in the rest of the UK be short changed?

Have Dassault offered to help integrate non-French weapons with the Rafale?

With Typhoon partner nations all having slightly different weapons choices I would have thought the variety available for it would be much greater than Rafale?

I would think Labour is the problem with the UK. It’s the US equivalent to progressives. Inch your way closer to communism with each passing year.

Because there has never, ever been mismanagement under Republican/Conservative administrations? Putting all problems down to ‘communism’, or suggesting that people who disagree with you must therefore be communist, is ridiculous.

I think that part of the problem is, in fact, not being willing to use the free market. If governments weren’t so insistent on being protectionist and purchasing equipment from overseas, they could have saved billions.

I understand there are arguments of security etc, and I think that some of these have merit, but ‘being patriotic and buying domestic’ is part of the problem, and more ‘communist’ than pragmatic.