The basic question you guys need to ask yourself is- does Trident return more to the Scottish economy than it takes out. I don’t have numbers but it seems incredibly unlikely (if it does, we should build some more!) Pointing at corner shops and saying “Hey, the base employs cleaners” doesn’t add up to billions of quid. Then you need to contrast that with the contribution to the local economy that basing the surface fleet there will make- nobody’s talking about leaving an empty hole where the navy used to be.
Everything we spend in the UK creates jobs and returns money to the economy; the question on that is always, is it an optimum return. Is the peacetime divident of Trident better than spending the same sum on more surface boats, or creating jobs in hospitals and schools…
Personally, I’d be totally content with the idea of leasing Faslane and Coulport to the UK government indefinitely- best of all worlds in my book, we get rid of the bill for the white elephant and the bad karma, but still get the jobs and the money. But not everyone is that prosaic about it.
