The UK in 2026 finds itself out of the European Union and uncertain whether it can still trust its largest military ally across the Atlantic. The Army, Royal Navy and RAF have all been run down in the decades after the Cold War.
Serious questions have been asked about the UK’s ability to defend itself, given the US’s hostility to Europe since the re-election of Trump, and Washington’s seeming indifference to the Nato alliance. The need for the UK to invest in defence is clear.
But this isn’t just about spending billions of pounds of taxpayers’ money on expensive bits of kit for soldiers. Defence spending should be as much about sustaining highly-skilled, well-paid jobs – especially in Scotland where the demise of heavy industry has hit us hard.
Traditional employers like steel and commercial shipbuilding have shrunk over the last 40 years, and the North Sea energy sector in a severe downturn. But naval shipbuilding and marine engineering remain two of the few ways to train up the next generation of skilled apprentices – and retain existing workers.
View 3 ImagesDefence Secretary John Healey(Image: Toby Shepheard/PA)
It would be unrealistic in a global world for all defence contracts to be given to UK-based companies. But when it comes to a project as large as Programme Euston, which will deliver two huge floating dry docks to the Faslane naval base, there is a clear argument for the contract to be handed to UK yards.
The GMB argues this £1.9billion deal should go to fabrication yards in Scotland and Northern Ireland – and not abroad. The UK Government should do the right thing and follow their advice.
THE so-called “Beastie House” paedophile ring is such a shocking story that it is difficult to properly take in the extent of the horror.
Kids treated like sexual playthings by a group of adults so depraved they can barely be described as human.
The perpetrators have rightly been sent to jail for a very long time.
View 3 ImagesBeastie House rape gang: Barry Watson, Elaine Lannery, Iain Owens, and (bottom row, left to right) John Clark, Scott Forbes, Paul Brannan, six of the seven people who have been convicted of being part of a Scottish child abuse ring
But now details are emerging that warning signs that these children were in serious danger were missed.
A report by Glasgow City Council issued yesterday highlighted 25 different occassions where concerns over the children’s welfare were raised. But each time the children were kept in harm’s way.
Social workers often have an impossible task – under-resourced, too many cases, conflicting demands from families and bosses.
It’s not an easy job and the people who do it every day deserve our respect.
But surely in this case somebody should have realised these children were at serious risk of abuse.
Lessons need to be learned, and rule books rewritten, to make sure no more kids are ever left to suffer like these poor souls.
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