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Cathy Ratcliff's avatar

Thanks for this article. We really need more constant awareness like this of how the world has changed and we need to change with it.

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Iain Macwhirter's avatar

Thanks for that. What’s particularly funny about the Bairns not Bombs slogan is that Scottish mothers are having a lot fewer of them. The population has bombed.

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Elizabeth Robertson's avatar

Timely article, Iain, and thank you for it. It’s easy for people like Chicken Gougeon and her boss to pretend they have principles but we all know they’d be coo’ering behind the British Armed Forces if our country was attacked by an unprincipled megalomaniac like Putin.

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Iain Macwhirter's avatar

It’ll take time to shake off the delusions of the long progressive wave.

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Neil Smith's avatar

The unintentional irony of Swinney’s comments about the Ukraine war and nuclear weapons is incredible. Ukraine is one of the few countries in world history to have voluntarily given up their nuclear arsenal. Russia’s invasions breached that very treaty and it’s safe to say a nuclear armed Ukraine would have changed Putin’s decision making process.

The lack of practical thinking of the SNP on this issue is quite bizarre. They hold up Nordic countries as ideological hot spots, when in fact the Nordics are really clear-eyed on defence, particularly following Ukraine. As well as an immediate ramping up of defence spending, Finland has underground bunkers that are more like small towns, Sweden has a special form of community/military service in case of attack, and the Danish state has been sending letters warning of a potential hybrid attack and that people should have water, cash, tinned food for several days.

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Rob Bradley's avatar

I also note that the comparisons with the productivity margins achieved by the Baltic states have also fallen silent. Small countries with a similar population size but quite phenomenal work ethic combined by significantly more self aware realpolitik.

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Maggie Mellon's avatar

Walking into war with Starmer’s fake patriotism - just for profits - is the danger. We are the dangerous world. More spending on arms just makes the world more dangerous.

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