Man is this turning out to be a 2 way conversation? A mutual admiration society! Ah well, 'tis a pretty rare thing for a Scot and Brit to agree......I for one had as much sympathy for the islanders (Hebrides and Orkney) actually nearer Norway than London. Imagine how they must have felt with the oil and gas explosion (so to speak) I think it is fair to say though (and correct me if I am wrong) but didn't Aberdeen do fairly well out of the whole North Sea Oil and Gas stuff. I did spend some time at the naval base near Edinburgh (you perhaps remember the drunken sailors cavorting at the Commonwealth Games in 1970, but thats another story) and the local people always seemed to be appreciative of the buisness that the base provided. That does not excuse the exploitation, but the poor simple sailor goes where the government sends him whether its nukes on the Clyde or Frigates in Rosyth. Anyway did I miss the point? I think its also fair to say that the whole blame for Clyde nukes and Dounrey cannot be laid at the feet of the Tories only. Successive Labor governments had their chance to close or make such establishments less exploitive, but didn't. Labor itself was responsible for scrapping and laying off of hundreds of soldiers, sailors and airmen. The decommissioning of their equipment, but not the closing of the nuke bases in Scotland. I think at the time considerable pressure was placed upon the UK government by NATO to keep them open; the reasons for which are not really for discussion on this forum. That pressure however was too strong to resist, despite considerable opposition from Scotland. Anyway whatever. I'll go now........