An Independent Scotland's influence in the world

The now almost daily and increasingly weak, desperate and downright contradictory attempts of Blair, Brown, Straw, McConnell et al to find reasons why it's not time for independence are going to be a recurring theme of mine at the moment.

One that Jack Straw is peddling is that Scotland's influence in the world would be less if it wasn't part of the state called the UK.

Let's deal with that particular piece of piffle.

The first and most important point is that having influence as a member of the family of nations is only worthwhile if it's a capacity to influence for the "good" of the family.

Let's then take a very specific topic. Nuclear weapons.

The world knows that it is unsustainable for the post war 5 to go around demanding that nobody else should have a nuclear "deterrent" but insisting it's ok for the post war 5 to have it.

Independence will ensure that Trident is not replaced in Scotland. You can rest assured that it certainly wouldn't then be replaced by being located in England. Scotland would then be exercising her full voice as a nation in Europe. The only European state that would then continue to possess a nuclear deterrent would be France which would be wholly isolated. A Europe free of nuclear weapons would be beckoning. Decreased influence for good? They must be joking.

Lachie McNeill