Leaders: SNP must now find realistic alternative for nuclear jobs AFTER last week's verbal contortions over "27 missing words" comes a far greater challenge for the SNP administration in persuading Scots to vote for the SNP's nuclear- free-but-still-in-Nato vision of independence. Today Philip Hammond, the Defence Secretary, will unveil an additional £350 million for the next stage of designing the future generation of British nuclear-armed submarines. The investment will sustain 1,200 UK jobs and comes hard on the heels of the initial £350m of design work announced earlier this year. Mr Hammond will make the announcement when he visits Faslane today - and will leave in no doubt what is at stake in the independence referendum. He will point out that Faslane is the largest employment site in Scotland with more than 6,500 jobs underpinning the local economy. In addition, the intention to move the Astute and Trafalgar Class attack submarines to Faslane will create a further 1,500 jobs. Indeed, all Royal Navy submarines are to be based at Faslane by 2017, which will increase the workforce at the site to more than 8,000 by 2022. All this sets a challenge to the SNP. There would be a heavy employment price to pay were the SNP, in the event of independence, to follow through with its anti-nuclear policy. Hammond has thrown down a gauntlet: the SNP needs to explain how its policy would benefit Scotland's economy and safeguard jobs. Moreover, there would be wider effects across our manufacturing sector as future contracts relating to defence for the rest of the UK came to be awarded to non-Scots firms. This is an uncomfortable scenario for advocates of independence, and one that is already causing apprehension in the business world. It would be hypocritical for the SNP to expect that Scotland would continue to enjoy the employment benefits - direct and indirect - that the siting of the submarine nuclear deterrent fleet here has brought. It will need to convince voters that they will not suffer a direct loss of employment together with indirect service supply and related contracts. Such a loss would be coincident with continuing challenges arising from a weakened banking system and economy resulting from the global financial crisis. This tall order will require the articulation of a robust and credible employment-generating alternative. An independent Scotland could survive and prosper by developing a sophisticated transport and economic infrastructure, a skilled workforce, low business taxes: a policy mix able to offer a highly competitive and rewarding business environment. It is not enough for such a vision merely to be asserted. It has to be developed to a detail and credibility that would pass muster domestically and internationally. It is going to take the administration every day of the next two years to meet the challenge that now yawns in front of it. Capital needs to get basics in order Oh, for a break in big eye-catching developments for Scotland's capital city. Even before an end is in sight to a trams debacle that has disfigured one of Europe's most beautiful cities, rows have broken out over future skyline-changing developments to "take the city forward." Of course the city should be thinking seriously over its future and how it is to remain an international magnet for arts, education, business and commerce. It must not shrink from big challenges ahead - not least the bold and imaginative scheme to redevelop the George IV Bridge library and develop the area into a major international literary centre. Other projects, too, are visionary and inspiring. The council has a duty to pursue these. And there is much truth in the criticism that the planning system is ponderous, bureaucratic, inefficient and blighted by backward-looking lobby groups determined to oppose every little improvement at every turn. The finest minds of the 14th century will kill the city. But there is a crying need now for the council to get the basics in order: tidy up the city centre, act boldly to keep the streets clean, functioning and beautiful. Above all, it must ensure that the tram system is bedded in and functioning before charging on with the next disruption. There are many small things the city has overlooked and needs to get right. Scotland's capital is in danger of losing the plot by neglecting the myriad little things that make a city pleasing, vibrant, inviting and successful. Residents and visitors alike dearly want the council to focus on these before the next invasion of diggers, pneumatic drills, road blocks and diversions. We need a break from chasing concrete rainbows.