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TRIDENT nuclear bombs are too risky to be based in the south of England, but it’s fine for Scotland, according to the UK government.

The Ministry of Defence says that the nuclear submarines currently housed on the Clyde could not be moved to the Devonport base in Plymouth because an accident there would endanger too many lives.

Responding to a Freedom of Information request from the Scottish Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, the MoD said: “Neither the Devonport naval base nor the dockyard safety case permit the berthing of an armed submarine.”

At least 11,000 Plymouth citizens could be killed in a worst-accident scenario envisaged by the MoD, and that is deemed an unacceptable risk.

Why then does the MoD insist it’s fine to keep these killers anchored just 40 miles from Scotland’s biggest city and centre of population? Put starkly, Scots lives are worth less. Back in 2000 the MoD envisaged a hypothetical accident involving Trident in Faslane. It concluded “societal contamination” resulting from such a disaster was OK.

No wonder CND have thrown their weight behind an independent Scotland.

It’s the only way to get rid of these obscene weapons, whether we live in Devon or Dumbarton.

LAST year, a poll found that two in every three of us would back an independent Scotland if it made us personally £500 better off.

Scotland has 8.4 per cent of the population and pays 9.6 per cent of UK tax. Last year, that created a surplus of £2.7billion for Scotland, which works out at £500 each, according to figures backed by the Office of National Statistics.

We’ve been in the black for three of the past six years while the rest of the UK has limped along in the red. So our prospects are bright. Naturally, this terrifies the London government and David Cameron has ordered his top civil servants to make the propaganda case against the people of Scotland controlling their own affairs.

Last week, they fired their first offensive. Danny Alexander, Chief Secretary to the Treasury, admitted Scots would each have got £500 in 2010-11.

But he tried to undermine it by averaging Scotland’s financial position over the past 12 years. Using that calculation, Danny says we will each be £1 a year worse off with independence.

Is this really the best the Treasury big guns can do? A worst case scenario where you lose just £1, IN A WHOLE YEAR?

But most of the time you are a lot better off? I can live with that. Especially since these figures relate to Scotland’s financial position now, with all our economic decisions made in England.

We can certainly improve on Lib Dem Alexander and his chums. Their austerity programme is causing more debt as tax revenue falls.

Now even enemies of independence admit it won’t harm Scots finances. When people in Scotland make decisions – instead of the Tories in London – things can only get better.