Scottish parliament hears about damaging impact of Trident

A motion has been tabled in the Scottish parliament welcoming a new report by Scottish CND entitled 'If Britain Fired Trident'.

The report illustrates that an attack using 40 nuclear warheads, the normal complement on a Clyde-based Trident submarine, would result in 5.4 million deaths. It explains that humanitarian and emergency agencies would be unable to provide an adequate response.

Patrick Harvie MSP, who is due to speak at a 'Scrap Trident' demonstration in April this year, said: "Scottish Greens remain proud of the fact that a debate we led in the last session of parliament resulted in a historic vote against the renewal of Trident. This new report from Scottish CND underlines the horrific humanitarian consequences of continuing to host these weapons of mass destruction."

He added: "Scottish Greens are now the only party in parliament who believe joining pro-nuclear clubs like NATO is incompatible with wanting Trident removed from our waters. By gaining control of this issue and ending such international links Scotland could send a very powerful message to the world about our values."

The text of the motion reads as follows: That the parliament welcomes the report "If Britain Fired Trident" by Scottish CND, which illustrates the catastrophic humanitarian consequences of an attack on a large urban area with multiple nuclear weapons; understands that devastation would be on such a scale that humanitarian and emergency response agencies would be utterly unable to provide an adequate response; notes that an attack using 40 nuclear warheads, the normal complement on a Trident submarine, would be expected to result in 5.4 million deaths; offers good wishes to the campaigners holding a Scrap Trident demonstration in Glasgow on April 13th and a blockade to shut down Faslane on April 15th; notes that Scottish representatives are due to attend an international conference on the humanitarian impact of nuclear weapons in Oslo on 4-5 March 2013; and urges the Scottish Government to adopt a position of ending international strategies based on nuclear weapons, instead of seeking to join organisations based on such strategies.

* Scottish CND: http://www.banthebomb.org/

* 'Scrap Trident' weekend of protest and action, 13-15 April 2013: http://notonatoscotland.org.uk/?p=306

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