LOYALTY to the British military may stop Scots from wanting to join an independent defence force, according to the UK Government.
The claim is made in a paper to be launched by Defence Secretary Philip Hammond in Edinburgh next week.
An extract states: "An independent Scottish state could not simply co-opt existing units that are primarily recruited or based in Scotland, as these are an integral part of the UK Armed Forces.
"Personnel might very well not wish to leave the UK Armed Forces to join much smaller forces, not least because of strong bonds of loyalty."
However, the Scottish Government say that an independent Scotland will have first-class conventional forces and that Scotland stands to inherit a fair share of existing UK defence assets.
And SNP defence spokesman Angus Robertson MP wants Mr Hammond to apologise for UK cuts in the armed forces when he visits Scotland to launch the paper next week.
Mr Robertson said: "After the years of broken promises from Westminster Governments, and when soldiers serving in these regiments are being handed P45s by Phillip Hammond, the Defence Secretary's words will be particularly hollow.
"If there is one area which shows that Scotland has to be better at making decisions for ourselves than Westminster is, it is the lamentable record of the Ministry of Defence in Scotland.
"Three airbases are being reduced to one. Uniquely as an armed maritime nation in northern Europe we have no maritime patrol aircraft and have no ocean capable conventional vessels based in Scotland.
"When Philip Hammond visits Scotland, he should be apologising for the litany of closures, disproportionate cuts, capability gaps and broken promises.
"It is so embarrassing that to claim an independent Scotland can't do better is an insult to common sense and international comparison."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article