In his response on 26 March to Hillary Sillito’s article about future Scottish defence, it could be convincingly argued that Alex Gallagher falls back on what is now out-of-date and increasingly redundant thinking about the issue of Scotland’s defence needs.
Economic resilience is central to national defence
The notable absence in Gallagher’s narrative is that the biggest lesson to be learned from both the Ukraine and Middle East wars is defence is not just about military capacity – it is also about economic resilience.
In fact, we should consider economic resilience as more important than military capabilities. For a start, a nation needs its citizens to believe they have a stake in their nation’s prosperity if they are going to lay down their lives for it.
Britain’s people fought fascism in the belief of a brighter future – a promise of “homes for heroes” that was delivered by the post WW2 Labour Government. This began an era of shared prosperity once the early hardships of rationing were overcome, and transformed the economy from a war-based to a normal economy.
That era came to an end in the 1980s with the arrival of Margaret Thatcher’s Conservative government and the start of a multi-decade dominance of neoliberal ideology and economic policy. We now live in a country of extreme and growing social inequality. Are people willing to die in battle to defend such social injustice?
Scotland needs a new ‘social contract’
So the first priority for Scotland is to restore shared prosperity to our people. We are not going to achieve that while locked into a United Kingdom that is wedded to neoliberalism and clinging to an ambition to remain a global power and reluctant to let go of its imperial past. Scotland must claim its independence and lay the foundations for a new social contract that our people will commit to defend.
It is in this context that Sillito has set out a new perspective on Scotland’s defence needs. Of course Scotland can build such new capabilities that reflect an objective assessment of the actual threats we will face.
While we may have chosen an independent path outside of the union, this does not turn the rest of the UK into an enemy. There are military capabilities we can share, as part of a broader alliance with other nations who share our values and our aspirations for future global peace.
An independent Scotland has the means
We can build the new military capabilities we need if we have the resources and manufacturing capacity available to do so. This is about investing in ourselves to restore Scotland’s industrial economy, including steel production, shipbuilding, etc. Some of this will need to be done in partnership with overseas investors and our allies’ own industrial capabilities.
With our own currency, central bank, and other key financial institutions – such as a People’s Wealth Fund and a National Investment Bank – we will have the financial and fiscal firepower to harness all our available resources, our people and their skills, to produce what our country needs.
It’s time to move on and embrace innovative new thinking. Sillito has laid the foundations for a constructive new debate about our future national defence – let’s build on it.
More from Jim Osborne
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