Leader of the Scottish Liberal Democrats, Alex Cole-Hamilton, will pledge to make defence a central pillar of his party’s industrial and skills strategies ahead of the Scottish Parliament elections in May, the UK Defence Journal understands.
The commitments, which will feature in the party’s forthcoming manifesto, include ensuring Scottish firms are positioned to win a share of increasing UK defence spending as well as contracts from allied nations, creating a new skills strategy to map and address workforce gaps, and promoting apprenticeships as a route into high-wage defence industry jobs from engineering to cyber.
The party will also call on the UK Government to launch a programme of defence bonds to fund what it describes as a £20 billion boost to military spending, with the aim of reaching 3% of GDP by 2030 at the latest. Further pledges include championing the defence industry’s role in supporting Ukraine, developing commercial space launch capability starting with SaxaVord in Shetland for both commercial and military satellite deployment, and working with Westminster to protect critical undersea infrastructure from foreign interference.
Cole-Hamilton said: “We need to ramp up our industrial base and get serious about Scotland’s defences. That’s why Liberal Democrats have set out clear plans for delivering more defence jobs and forging closer ties with our European allies after years of neglect.”
He added: “The world has become a more dangerous place, but if handled correctly, this can be an opportunity for Scottish jobs and Scottish industry.”
Cole-Hamilton was critical of rival parties, saying: “The SNP are squeamish about keeping Scotland safe, while Reform are full of admiration for Putin. Neither of them can be trusted with our defence industry.”
He also referenced his personal experience supporting Ukraine, stating: “A year ago I drove with the charity Mighty Convoy to deliver ambulances to those fighting on the frontline in Ukraine. No one should be in any doubt that unless Putin is defeated in Ukraine, he will strike again elsewhere. Meanwhile America is no longer a reliable ally.”
Who ?
Is this why you’ve been away? You’ve metamorphosed into an owl?
haha,
Long story short,
“reports of my death are greatly exaggerated”
The wonders of modern surgery are vastly under valued !
It’s mental that the SNP is down to its lowest vote share since the 90’s but the f**ked up voting system and the never ending fracture of UK political parties means they will return another majority and claim a “mandate” for independence.
Labour and the Lib Dems could easily work together on an electoral pact to defeat the SNP but the stupid myopic Westminster outlook based on first past the post and the grand standing of local leaders like Alex Cole Hamilton means Scotland is stuck with another five years of failure.
I don’t like electoral pacts Jim. It smacks of fiddling the electorate, but you’re right. The system is ludicrous. I can’t help but think it was simpler in my younger years when it was the Tories and Labour slogging it out. I have voted for both in the past. Now I don’t really recognize either of them.
To be honest I haven’t voted for a while it doesn’t matter who’s in defence gets screwed every time