Fmr Deputy Leader of Tory Party: England "would bomb independent Scotlands airports"
English 'would bomb our airports'
Herald, 13 March 2012
GLASGOW and Edinburgh airports, in an independent Scotland, could be bombed by an English government if it was threatened by an unfriendly country, a former deputy leader of the UK Conservative Party has warned.
Lord Fraser of Carmyllie also warned that SNP policies removing nuclear forces from Scottish bases and reducing Scotland's navy "essentially" to fishery protection vessels could make Scotland a war zone. He said a country with a few fishery protection vessels was "asking to be invaded".
The former Lord Advocate and Solicitor General said he did not see who might have "evil intentions" against England but he had missed "the import of the Balkan crisis and the ramifications of 9/11" and would hesitate "to predict the crises even in the rest of the century".
He foresaw the possibility of an enemy commander ordering the runways at Scottish airports to be cleared because his planes would be landing and "if that were to happen what alternative would England have but to come and bomb the hell out of Glasgow airport and Edinburgh airport".
He suggested one solution would be to base the nuclear fleet, currently based on the Clyde, to Scapa Flow in the Orkney Islands.
Yep, thats the really clever way to get us to stay in the Union. Barely veiled threats of state terrorism.
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Mr Mannering don't panic, don't panic
They don't like it up em,:D
But seriously though, IF, A, B, or C happens then some ex Tory reckons that we MIGHT do X,Y, or Z,
anyway depriving an enemy of potentiality useful assets has been quite a common practice, ask the Frence and the Norwegians,
I would imagine should English airports become in danger of falling into enemy hands, in the extremely unlikely event that this country was invaded, that they would be destroyed rather than let them fall into enemy hands.
Not like you to take the side of a tory :eek:
However, the fact that the situation he describes is so contrived and unrealistic and such an odd thing to say at such a time, that shows the implicit threat.
Is he talking about a foreign power occupying Scotland? Or is he implying Scotland just having a government that England feels "threatens its interests" would be enough?
The threat is not to be taken seriously, he is a batty old right-wing loon, but that Unionists are scraping the bottom of the barrel with such scaremongering bluster cannot bode well for them. It certainly strikes a chord up here - just not the one they want it to.
Sounds like a journalists trick to me. First you set up a question designed to inflame your target audience and ask it of a reliable muppet. On obtaining a suitably inflamatory answer you then dump the result on your audience.
I suppose it sells plenty of papers/advertising and is therefore worth the minor cost of reducing public debate on important issues to the level of a primary school playground.
I thought I had heard them all but this really reaches into the nut bag.
What next
SNP plans for the population to work for no wages and at no cost to big corporations. Opps the Westminster government seems to have got there first.
Desperation, you can almost smell it off the unionists
I don't think people would mind. When the RAF had free-fall nuclear bombs, they were kept at bases in southern England.
Lord Fraser of Carmyllie is a Scot isn't he who represented a Scottish seat as an MP in the 1980s?. So why would he be threatening to bomb his own country?
He is making a purely technical legalistic point based on the fact that Scotland would be an independent nation. So nothing to get that excited about - as I don't think anyone has Scottish invasion plans at the moment (except possibly One Direction when they start their forthcoming tour?).
Does he own Orkney, or merely believe that he has the power to do this?
Anyone else unable to read his hysterical, Cassandran ramblings without getting this image?
http://i208.photobucket.com/albums/bb16/fryphile2/Bits%20of%20Fry/PDVD_050.jpg
I see Murphy is still beating the 'separation' drum, in addition to his fear-mongering nonsense. I found this interesting quote:
Separation: Nationalists want separation.
Independence is a state of being and a state of mind. Separation is a short process you go through to attain independence. Calling Scottish independence 'separation' is a bit like calling a month long holiday in a luxury hotel in a tropical beachside paradise 'a visit to Glasgow airport'.
In any case, Scotland and England are already separate countries, moreover they are countries which are increasingly distant from one another in their political cultures, which is precisely why we're having this independence debate.
here.
A sneak invasion of earth by multi-eyed aliens with ray guns and flying saucers wouldn't be 'completely implausible' either. Do you suggest that we set up border controls at the upper levels of the earth's atmosphere to try and safeguard against this possibility?
Obviously in the unlikely event of Scotland being invaded, bombing of Scottish ports would be reasonable collateral damage, however.
I would be more worried by the Eskimos, sneaking past the fishery protection vessels in their kayaks.:D
Or the Dutch; from the end of WWII to the 1970s, an essential part of their role in NATO was to open the polders and flood half the country! :eek: The intent was to make a wet, sticky obstacle in the path of the Warsaw Pact's vast tank armies...
I have to say - in this he's only being a realist. Somewhere someone will have incorprated it in their strategic planning, to deprive a potential enemy of useable assets. It's the sort of thing planning staffs do - plan for ALL contingencies. These are EXACTLY the sort of questions that have to be thought about - whether seperatists view them as realistic or not.
As for being a batty right-wing loon....so was Churchill through the 1930s - and look what happened :eek:
I wouldn't be too worried about Scotland being subdued by another nation but I might worry about them forming an alliance with someone. Perhaps when his lordship came out with this, he was reminded of the traitorous SNP leader who tried to persuade Scottish soldiers not to fight for Britain in WW2.
We'll they'll have to keep their eye on Germany then won't they.
I can't see Scotland making an alliance with someone else, hell we can barely get on with other Scots:D
Norway managed to survive without a large STANDING army - which is something very different.
After WWII and through the Cold War it had a large reserve-based army I.E. it had compulsory military service for a few years...followed by many years' madatory reserve status - all reservists to be called up in time of war. It has NOW downsized to a mere 22,000 military personnel, all professional...
...which arguably means it would be MORE useful in time of war than it was in 1940!
Why am I not surprised? And why am I not surprised by your lack of comment about Donaldson and some of his buddies?
What's the relevance of the actions of a politician 70 years ago?