That the Scottish public is opposed to British retention of nuclear weapons, not least due to their location on the Clyde, has long been regarded as one of the safest assumptions of the independence debate. A recent poll by Scottish CND found that 60 per cent of Scots oppose “the UK Government buying a new nuclear weapons system to replace Trident”, with only 14 per cent in favour. Unilateral disarmament, it seems, remains one of Alex Salmond’s strongest cards.
But a new survey by Lord Ashcroft, the Tory donor turned prolific pollster, suggests a more complex picture. It found that more than half of Scots believe Trident should be replaced, either with an equally powerful system (20 per cent) or a cheaper but less powerful system (31 per cent). How to explain the discrepancy? In his commentary on ConservativeHome, Ashcroft points out that, unlike his survey, Scottish CND’s poll failed to mention that Trident was coming to “the end of its useful life”, creating the misleading impression that the UK government “wanted to spend billions on new nukes just for the hell of it.” He also criticises the group’s use of the figure £65bn, which includes the running costs for thirty years, a number three times greater than “the true replacement figure”. This seems reasonable; polls asking how much the government should spend on the NHS or schools typically cite the annual cost, not the lifetime one. (Although to add to the complexity, the poll also found that only 37 per cent support the UK having nuclear weapons “in principle”, with 48 per cent opposed.)
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