AN independent Scotland should claim one of the Royal Navy's new aircraft carriers for use as a humanitarian hospital ship, says a socialist manifesto.
The "Robert Burns" would be despatched on missions to Africa and Asia at a cost to Scots taxpayers of £35million per year, former SNP deputy leader Jim Sillars said.
He admitted the plan might "invite mockery" but argued an independent Scotland should use "soft power" rather than military might.
He called for partial nationalisation of North Sea oil, with a new Scottish National Oil Corporation taking a 15% stake in all production and profit in Scottish waters.
In another radical plan, he suggested a boom in council house building could be funded by offering Islamic finance mechanisms to encourage investment by wealthy Gulf states.
On finance, he called for a new Scottish currency and tax breaks for small firms.
The proposals were included in a blueprint for an independent Scotland, entitled In Place Of Fear II. Mr Sillars, still an SNP member, said he hoped it would persuade traditional Labour voters to back independence.
In a direct pitch to the party's supporters, he claimed Alex Salmond was "irrelevant" to the debate over the future of Scotland. He added: "I think the SNP made a mistake in the White Paper by trying to pretend it is a manifesto for the SNP."
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