AS Drew Hendry and David Linden found out to their cost last week, parliamentarians engaging with the British military sometimes find they have bitten off more than they can chew. For the military are no strangers to the UK Parliament or its elected members. In fact, as every freshman MP learns when they first enter the portals of the Palace of Westminster, the Army, Navy and air force top brass maintain a major lobby presence at Westminster.

The present head of the UK military, Chief of the Defence Staff General Sir Nick Carter, is a ubiquitous presence in and around Parliament. When I was an MP, he was only head of the Army, rather than boss of the whole show. But his ambition was already obvious.

Carter has Hollywood looks and a military bearing straight out of central casting. He is exactly the prototype for the star of a 1950s British, black-and-white war movie. David Niven eat your heart out.

I remember him marching through the precincts of Westminster most days, in a pressed uniform whose creases would easily cut your fingers. He was followed by a retinue of young staffers (men and women) struggling to keep up with him.

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These aides were usually burdened down with copious briefcases indicating urgent business. But in the various briefings I attended with Carter, he never referred to any documents. For he is the supreme political general: articulate, sophisticated, focused and here to lobby. As Wellington once said, I don’t know what he does to the enemy, but he scares the devil out of me.

Carter represents a new, 21st-century phenomenon. For the British military are no longer the bumbling donkeys who led lions in the Great War. These days, the top brass are sophisticates who view their main job as winning the battle for more cash from the politicians.

Carter and his fellow admirals and air marshals are part of a dedicated PR machine designed to extract vast amounts of public money for themselves and defence contractors. In pursuit of this goal, there are almost daily briefings, breakfasts and cosy, crony dinners for MPs and the top brass. Westminster is one vast lobbying exercise – and the British military are its best exponents.

As part of this exercise, each year a cohort of MPs of all parties are inducted into a special scheme where they visit the various branches of the military – always including some trip to foreign bases or operations.

The UK sovereign territory on sunny Cyprus is a favourite spot to take MPs. This operation is an insurance policy that Westminster will continue to defend the military’s right to “own” at part of the island against the will of the local people. SNP MPs taking part in the parliamentary military induction programme should remember that Unionist commentators have already speculated that the Faslane nuclear submarine base should be retained as UK sovereign territory after independence.

Drew and David were enrolled in this induction programme along with Tory and Labour MPs. Part of the “jollies” included a visit to the British military in Gibraltar, where the two SNP members were accused of being inebriated and obstreperous.

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It was no accident this “sting” took place at the very moment the Johnson government was under fire for sleaze. Perhaps the anonymous accusations against the two SNP MPs came from the Tory members of the delegation. Perhaps there was military connivance. Certainly, the BBC claimed that the two military “handlers” accompanying the 15-person Westminster delegation to Gibraltar had reported the alleged behaviour of the SNP MPs to the Ministry of Defence.

Either way, Drew and David were perhaps a little naive not to appreciate that the military have their own political agenda and that they are no friends of the SNP or the Scottish independence movement. Especially given the political objectives of Nick Carter and the other political top brass.

And behind them stand the big defence contractors who provide lucrative boardroom places and consultancies to retiring generals. For the military-industrial complex (aka gravy train) is alive and thriving at Westminster.

The so-called Armed Forces Parliamentary Scheme – of which Drew and David are members – plays a key role in ensuring MPs go on voting through the dosh to keep this military-industrial complex in business.

I should point out that it is not just the UK military who indulge in lobbying and intelligence-gathering at Westminster. In 2017, Westminster came under a terrorist attack and the whole place was locked down there and then. My parliamentary assistant found himself quarantined with two young American interns to a Tory MP. They got chatting and my assistant was rather shocked to discover these interns were actually from the US Marine Corps. It seems the US military is in the habit of funding intern support and research for Tory MPs. I wonder why?

All this should make SNP MPs very wary of the blandishments of the military-industrial complex at Westminster. That includes being sucked in to the prevailing Nato attempts to promote a new cold war with Russia.

I don’t dismiss the worries about what the Kremlin under Putin is up to. Putin has his own reasons for trying to divert domestic criticism of his ailing regime by fomenting trouble around Europe. In particular, the Kremlin is stoking a fresh round of ethnic conflict in Bosnia and is massing troops on the Ukrainian border. However, that is no reason for Scotland to fall glibly into line with Nato militarism, which has its own suspect agenda.

Post COP26, the Scottish Government is in a prime position to use its soft power with the smaller nations in Europe – inside and outside the EU – to promote a new agenda of cooperation and mutual aid. Why then subordinate an independent Scotland to the prevailing military and defence orthodoxy.

Why do SNP MPs think there is anything political to be gained from kowtowing to the UK or Nato military? Surely the whole point about independence and creating a new European nation is to break with the status quo – politically, militarily and economically?

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I’m sorry Drew Hendry and David Linden got embroiled in their scrape in Gibraltar. Drew I admire, especially as someone who has defended trade unions and workers’ rights both inside and outside the SNP. But you don’t protect yourself from false accusations by doubling down and making extravagant claims about how wonderful the British military are.

Britain’s armed forces are a colonial police force and have been for hundreds of years. To this has been added a modern role as a junior partner to the Pentagon and the US defence industry. It is no accident that the operational debut of Britain’s new aircraft carrier, HMS Queen Elizabeth, was to wave the flag at China on behalf of the Pentagon.

As an MP, I made one visit at the behest of the UK military. It was to view the completion of HMS Queen Elizabeth at Rosyth. It quickly became apparent that the Navy were having problems: there weren’t enough skilled workers locally, so hundreds of Poles had been imported to finish the carrier. The Chinese must be quaking in their boots.