"The Americans were much more sensible. When they set up house in the Holy Loch they brought most of their own infrastructure with them in the shape of a moored tender, a decision which had more to do with common sense than any cent-pinching in Washington. At the time of the deployment in the 1960s the Americans were far from certain that their British hosts would always be onside, a sensible precaution since it seemed to them that an incoming Labour government would adopt a policy of unilateral nuclear disarmament."
Trevor Royle, writing in the Sunday Herald in 1999, pointing out that it would have been perfectly possible for the London government to decide to base nuclear weapons in Scotland while still having contingency planning for the obvious possibility of a democratic withdrawal of consent for their presence.
So it's true. The Labour Party was once a Labour Party...
ReplyDeleteBut only up to a point. The Americans were wrong, of course - Labour didn't disarm when they got into power in 1964, even though in the interim Hugh Gaitskell had died and been replaced by the theoretically more left-wing Harold Wilson.
ReplyDeleteThat is to say, they did have principles, but when the chance to be seen standing next to the most powerful man in the world came knocking, the principles were ditched.
ReplyDeletePlus ça change, plus c'est pareil!
The Record poll
ReplyDeletehttp://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/politics/referendum-new-poll-puts-support-3236690