Political Situation
The presence of the Faslane base is also an issue in Scottish politics. The Scottish National Party, the Scottish Socialist Party and the Scottish Green Party all oppose the deployment of nuclear weapons, although the Scottish National Party have made assurances that they would retain the base for the servicing of conventionally-armed and powered naval units. The issue of Trident is a reserved matter dealt with at Westminster, rather than nationally in Scotland.
It is not unusual for members of these Scottish political parties, and indeed some from the Labour Party, to attend rallies outside Faslane. One of its founder members, Les Robertson, went on to become a Labour Party Councillor on the local Dumbarton Council and is a regular candidate for the Scottish Socialist Party. Robertson has served two prison sentences for protests he has taken part in at the Faslane base, the first in 1983 when he was still resident at the camp, and the most recent in 2005. Various other Scottish politicians have been involved in protests at Faslane.
Read more about this topic: Faslane Peace Camp
Famous quotes containing the words political and/or situation:
“Do we call this the land of the free? What is it to be free from King George and continue the slaves of King Prejudice? What is it to be born free and not to live free? What is the value of any political freedom, but as a means to moral freedom? Is it a freedom to be slaves, or a freedom to be free, of which we boast?”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Power is not an institution, and not a structure; neither is it a certain strength we are endowed with; it is the name that one attributes to a complex strategical situation in a particular society.”
—Michel Foucault (1926–1984)