A former SNP defence spokesperson has argued that Scotland’s approach to defence and security is increasingly misaligned with the realities of Europe’s security environment, calling for a more serious engagement with defence policy within devolved politics.
Writing in an article published by Enlighten.scot on 24 January, Stewart McDonald, the former MP for Glasgow South and now Director of Regent Park Strategies, said defence has long been treated as an uncomfortable subject within the SNP, often avoided unless political circumstances force the issue.
“Too often, defence has been the SNP’s most awkward policy subject: discussed when unavoidable and rarely on the party’s own terms,” McDonald wrote, adding that it typically emerges only during crises before being “returned quietly to the box marked ‘reserved’.”
He argued that this reluctance has allowed defence and security to be debated through what he described as “a prism of social activism rather than strategic national interest,” an approach he said no longer reflects Europe’s evolving security situation. McDonald suggested that positions such as unilateral nuclear disarmament were developed for a different era, writing that it was a policy the SNP “could get away with in a world that no longer exists.”
In the article, he contends that defence should not be seen as irrelevant to Scotland simply because it is reserved to Westminster, noting that security threats do not align neatly with constitutional boundaries. “This is not because defence and security are irrelevant to Scotland. Quite the opposite,” he wrote. “But today’s world is no respecter of comfort zones.”
McDonald also argues that the Scottish Parliament should develop a stronger understanding of national resilience, including civil contingencies, infrastructure protection, energy security, cyber resilience and societal preparedness, areas he says fall squarely within devolved competence. The piece forms part of a wider debate on how Scotland engages with defence, European security and alliance politics amid heightened tensions across the continent following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and growing concerns over long-term deterrence and resilience. The full article, titled “It’s time for Scotland and the SNP to get serious about defence”, is available on Enlighten.scot.
Maybe someone should point out to the SNP that as Trump has realised that Scotland and England have considerable untapped Oil and Gas reserves and chastised Starmer and Milibrain for not using them to drive growth / lower fuel costs that little nugget is now on his $$$ Radar.
Trump is a US citizen but by the SNP’s own definition of Nationality he does qualify for becoming a Dual National, so maybe given that Starmer resists nothing being given away regardless of how idiotic it is, Trump could just say Scotland is going to be annexed as part of the USA for National Security !
And if you think that’s such a daft idea just look at a map of the Northern Hemisphere, facing the arctic from West to East we have Alaska (US), Canada (Trump Target 1), Greenland (Trump Target 2), Iceland (He just kept mentioning it by accident ?) and then Scotland. Thats the entire northern Arctic facing Coastline from Alaska to Norway stitched up !
And just remember Scotland was in the Cold War the USN forward deployment base for SSN / SSBN and SOSUS.
I’d love to see the SNP reply to that bright idea !
They demand to be protected by Big Bad Westminster…..or hope that EuroArguments[TM] will protect them….you know the patronising Berlemont tone explaining how you don’t understand the Euroligion….