Cause for Unionists to applaud

Brian Monteith has revived his Think Scotland website and as part of all this I’m scribbling there on Tuesdays. This week I’m busy cheering the SNP’s march to sanity on defence policy. Angus Robertson, the obvious candidate to combine the jobs of Foreign and Defence Secretary should Scotland become an independent state and remain governed by the SNP, has been busy leading the party back from the brink of student union yahooism and towards some kind of sweet sanity. Hence his proposal to abandon the SNP’s longstanding anti-NATO stance. Scotia free and braw will join the alliance provided some deal is done to remove the nukes from Faslane. At some point. Anyway, all this is worth a cheer or two…

Unionists have a stake in SNP policy too. It may be that the Scottish people reject the SNP’s proposals for independence but it remains the case that, just in case they do not, Unionists should welcome anything that suggests life in an independent Scotland might be arranged in ways that might better please and satisfy Unionists.