Taxi Driver Online

Oh ffs leave him alone, he wants Scotland for the Scottish and I can't see a problem with that.

Independence would save Scots taxpayers £1.5 billion defence bill, think tank claims
Taxpayers in an independent Scotland would pay £1.5 billion less on defence of the new realm than they do today, a think tank has claimed.

By Rosa Prince, Online Political Editor
Telegraph 15 Oct 2012

A report by the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) estimates that it would cost around £1.8 billion a year to defend an independent Scotland – the equivalent of 1.3 per cent of its Gross Domestic Product.

This is around £1.5 billion less than Scottish taxpayers currently pay to the Treasury to fund defence costs for the entire United Kingdom.

The report, A’ the Blue Bonnets: Defending an Independent Scotland, by Stuart Crawford and Richard Marsh, claims that independence would bring a substantial reduction in defence costs for Scottish taxpayers.

They claim that an independent Scotland would operate a "relatively modest" defence structure, with a "regional rather than global focus," comparable to that of other small European states such as Denmark, Norway and Ireland.

RUSI estimates that a Scottish Navy would employ a surface fleet of between 20 and 25 ships, but no submarines, such as HMS Astute, a nuclear-powered sub, currently based in Faslane, in western Scotland. There would be between 1,500 and 2,000 personnel based at Faslane, at a cost of £650 million a year.

The Scottish Air Force would be shrunk to around 60 aircraft, the report's authors suggest, with 1,750 to 2,250 personnel, at an annual cost of £370 million.

And the Army would stand at 10,000 to 12,500, including "a brigade-sized force, three combat battalions plus supporting arms." Some of the traditional Scottish regiments could be restored, with the overall cost estimated at £820 million.

Scotland currently supplies around 13 per cent of the British Army, 14 per cent of the RAF and 10 per cent of the Royal Navy.

The authors said: "Should the government of an independent Scotland, of any political hue, have the political will to establish an SDF [Scottish Defence Force] along the lines described herein, then it can certainly be done. An SDF would be necessary, feasible and affordable.

"Scottish defence forces would be relatively modest and probably have a regional, rather than global, focus.

"They would not be equipped with expensive and state-of-the-art hardware across the board; and ... they would be predominantly used for domestic defence duties with the capability to contribute to coalition and alliance operations under the aegis of whatever organisations Scotland became a member of."

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/ ... um=twitter

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http://wingsoverscotland.com/ http://www.newsnetscotland.com/

Thats us safe then..it'll end up being 50 guys lining the north side of the Tweed with Catapults and a pocket of ball bearings as a deterrent which will allow us all to sleep securely at night.

Why quote what you didn't read?

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http://wingsoverscotland.com/ http://www.newsnetscotland.com/

I think it's more a case of reading it correctly...and no matter how you read it it suggests less and not more security in an ever more volatile and unpredictable world.

You really need more long term vision than short term myopia.

If anyone is reading this wrong, it's you fool. Where does it say anything like this?





If anyone needs a visit to Specsavers, it's you. You just can't see past your own blind prejudices.
I suggest you learn the difference between Scottish money spent on defence, and Scottish money spent on the defence of Scotland.


You should be concerned BTW. The RUSI is not exactly a Scottish nationalist loving body - and this came from the Torygraph.

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http://wingsoverscotland.com/ http://www.newsnetscotland.com/

Perhaps you would like to tell us how many surface ships the RN have currently based or deployed in Scotland or Scottish waters? How many personnel?



Likewise the RAF? How many aircraft do they currently have deployed here? How many personnel?



Now I know that's more than the British Army have here on any given day. Want to tell us how much more?

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http://wingsoverscotland.com/ http://www.newsnetscotland.com/

Don't be so literal Gus, some of us can still think for ourselves and be able to grasp things that the brainwashed Eckolites just can't quite pick up on.. now, that's true Independence, the independence of free thought over the propaganda of the SNP's doctrine..

Bloodnock, Gus comes from the nationalist heartland, he is as entitled to his view as anyone else, not that your disputing that........if I was a Scot, and by the grace of god I am not, I would want independence, the rest of it is basically sh*te.......Malta is independent, are people saying the Maltese cant run their own affairs - or need to spend billions on weapons of mass destruction to retain their indepencence?

The SNP will collapse come independence, new people will come to the fore shaping your country.....history is in the making, its an exciting time for Scots.

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Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that.
George Carlin

I'm happy for Gus to be as Independent as he wishes to be, an admirable trait indeed.
But my retorts are as much tongue in cheek as they are wind up as they are fun...

But then I can have my own opinions also...I'm certainly not going to attack a fellow Scot whatever the outcome of a referendum should be.

Lets have some fun in the meantime though

As for Malta its an Island with no Common borders so has always had to be of independent mind to survive centuries of attempts to colonise it...it Even has a VC of it's very own...a tough bunch them Maltese.

Actually, it's a GC not a VC. Wrong as usual.

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http://wingsoverscotland.com/ http://www.newsnetscotland.com/

Your quite right about the GC..its as high an award as can be given to a civilian.

I was just testing to see if you were paying attention..

Sure you were.......

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http://wingsoverscotland.com/ http://www.newsnetscotland.com/

Couldn't have put it better myself.

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http://wingsoverscotland.com/ http://www.newsnetscotland.com/

Took someone from within England to write it though...