by Rab Bruce’s Spider

It looks as if MSP Jackie Baillie hasn’t been the only politician who could be accused of talking p*sh this week.

Secretary of State for Defence, Sir Michael Fallon, came to Scotland to tell us that Trident is the only way to keep us safe from North Korea and Russia.

Russia is, of course, becoming increasingly aggressive in its foreign policy, but the UK’s nuclear weapons make up such a tiny portion of the world’s nuclear arsenal that Fallon’s claim seems to be talking it up more than a little. Nuclear weapons cannot be uninvented, so until we find a foolproof way to scrap them all and ensure that nobody ever builds any ever again, mutual deterrence between the world’s superpowers is, unfortunately, the best way to ensure that no one country uses its nukes to enforce its will on other nations. But the UK is not a world superpower, and our weapons, even though they are capable of immense destruction, form only a very small percentage of the world’s nuclear weapons. It is probably fair to say, then, that Russia is more concerned by the vast nuclear arsenal of the USA than by the UK’s Trident missiles.

But it’s on North Korea that Fallon has excelled himself. First of all, President Trump and his allies have been making it very clear that possession of nuclear weapons would make North Korea a target. This is rather at odds with Fallon’s assertion that nuclear weapons keep the UK safe. Either they keep you safe or they make you a target. Which is it? Perhaps that depends on who your perceived enemies are. Ponder that thought.

The main inaccuracy in Fallon’s statement is, though, that North Korea is a threat to the UK. At the moment, North Korea doesn’t have a missile which can reach mainland USA, let alone travel half way round the world to strike at the UK. What keeps us safe from North Korea is geography. Of course, this may change in the future, but whether a North Korea which is capable of launching such an attack would bother itself with the UK when the USA is much closer and is viewed as a more immediate threat remains doubtful.

Still, inconvenient little facts have never stopped British politicians talking up the UK’s need for military power.