GMB Scotland secretary Louise Gilmour writes for The Herald's Scotland's Defence Future series on why she believes defence jobs can help Scotland build again

Questioned about an opponent’s plan to take his title, heavyweight champion Mike Tyson shrugged: “Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth.”

Well, the plan of the UK and other European nations to quietly continue cutting defence spending has not survived the old one-two delivered by Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump when the US president ordered them to spend more while, on Ukraine’s eastern border, his Russian counterpart showed them why.

As our world changes, our governments, on both sides of the border, are changing too. Just a few months on, for example, it is unlikely Holyrood ministers would again refuse support for a welding school on the Clyde because the skills taught there might help build submarines for the Royal Navy. At the time, the UK defence secretary rightly suggested it was the decision of an unserious government while John Swinney’s ministers spluttered about understanding the need for our armed forces but being unable, in good conscience, to arm them.

In a perfect world, we would need no guns, bombs, or missiles, warships, tanks or drones, but, right now, our world seems to get a little more imperfect with every day that passes. If other countries, our friends and others, are re-arming, it seems reckless not to. It would........

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