Already exists
There is already a facility at Faslane that is quite capable of launching objects into space. For some reason Holyrood keeps trying to shut it down.
During a third reading of the draft bill for space industries at the House of Lords yesterday, peers debated limiting the British government's power and also plumped for Scotland as the venue for a UK spaceport. As part of the government's 2020 space push, the bill is designed to give legal certainty to industry so it can …
"Kilt's make a bit more sense in warmer climes as well."
Clearly you have never worn one. You might think that your tackle would be cold in the winter but with a decent kilt being 6 - 8 yards of wool with a weight of up to 16 oz / yard they keep you very warm.
"What on earth was he doing at the time that required someone to hold his kilt for him"
For the record. He had hired it for my wedding and I took it down off hook it was hanging on to pass it to him. Holding it out at arms length was like that battery trial in the early Worlds Strongest Man competitions.
Moving the Space Port to Cornwall won't make any measurable difference. Putting it in the Caribbean would help but ruin the logistics and leave it exposed to worse weather than Scotland some of the time. Maybe the control rooms could be in contact centres near Glasgow though?
Isn't Scotland (at least currently...) a little too far from the Equator for launches to be efficient/economical/competitive?
Don't be silly and bring mere physics and orbital mechanics in! After all, this being a political process, making sure that votes are bought in is *far* more important..
Machrihanish (Campbeltown) is not mentioned, but it already has a bigger USAF built runway, and is more remote. And being an airport, remoteness is not an access problem.
However, depending on the next referendum, it may end up as a Baikonur style lease.
Other options, Woomera is being developed again, and also Ascension Island has an appropriate name and location.
"but politics says that the best place is the most marginal constituency."
A cast iron law of British politics. Site capital project in a place that suits you, the politician. An example from bloody years ago : In the 60's it was decided to move the Royal Mint out of London. They decided, out of many options, to move to south wales. The chancellor of the exchequer at the time(who made the decision), Jim Callaghan. An MP from south wales.
Can you imagine the sales pitch to top American businessmen*.
Launch from the US mainland in a suborbital craft and be on Turnberry in under an hour. Or Troon. A short helicopter ride to Muirfield, St Andrews, Carnoustie or one of a dozen other "top" courses.
*there may be some businesswomen who play golf, but let's face it, most of the top business wankers are men.
As others have said, Prestwick is pretty well placed for lobbing stuff into high inclination or polar orbits, but its got 9000 ft and 6000 ft runways. This also makes it an excellent place for space plane operations, such as Virgin Galactic's White KnightTwo/SpaceShipTwo for starters, followed by proper workhorses with orbital capability like Reaction Engines' Skylon and Bristol Spaceplanes Ascender (assuming they're still in existence: last news update was in 2015).
By comparison Campbeltown and Newquay have just a single 8000ft runway. Stornoway has 6600ft and 3200ft. LLanbedr has 7000ft and 5000ft. Newquay and the Stornoway main runway both look to be rather crosswind for prevailing UK winds. IOW Campbeltown and Newquay have long enough runways even if they are rather crosswind but LLanbedr and Stornoway look rather short for serious spaceplane development: longer is better when you're trying to land something with not much wing and a correspondingly high touchdown speed.
So just to be clear, both Lord Moynihan and Lord Lang whom "Live quite close to Prestwick Airport" think that location is "head and shoulders the best airport to be licensed for spacecraft activities".
Am I the only person who thinks that's a little suspect? No vested interests etc etc?
but I've got some ocean front property in New Mexico USA that would allow both Polar and Equatorial launches. Branson is investing here so maybe the British gov't should follow his lead and Amazon's Bezos is next door in Texas... Two pretty rich guys who are very successful. Bezos reusable launch booster has been very successful so ready technology and experience are close by... Some times its better to not start off re-inventing the wheel.
Why does everyone want to have a "spaceport" nearby? Does any of the retards seriously believe there will be tons of taxes (KER-CHING!!!) and mega-jobs (DOLE QUEUE REDUCTION) from rare launches of supercomplex fragile gear?
Are there also many people ready to allow nuclear reprocessing plants to be set up to get serious in space? Maybe they think everything can run on renewables??
Is it just a marketing gag for the next Star Wars installment?
Why does everyone want to have a "spaceport" nearby? Does any of the retards seriously believe there will be tons of taxes (KER-CHING!!!) and mega-jobs (DOLE QUEUE REDUCTION) from rare launches of supercomplex fragile gear?
Maybe some lobbyist is crossing a few palms with silvers which actually likely. Think about the two Disney parks... nothing around for miles before he built them. Or Cape Canaveral and the other sites. Nothing there, no value to the land around it. Put in a space launch site and PROFIT.