Today (20th January 2015), MPs will debate the future of the UK’s Trident nuclear weapons system. Those who speak in favour of renewing Trident, at a cost of almost £100 billion, will no doubt say Trident is essential to protect UK citizens at some point in the future. Yet last week, those same MPs voted to commit the next Parliament to austerity, which is killing UK citizens here and now.
Can a general election deliver meaningful political change in 2015? If not, how else can we campaign for a better society? Can we use the election to push the political narrative in unexpected directions?
CND has criticised the Government for signing a £37 million contract for Trident missile launchers more than a year before a Parliamentary vote on replacement of the system.
I wrote yesterday, 16 September 2014, about attitudes in England towards the Scottish referendum.(http://www.ekklesia.co.uk/node/20831) England, Wales and Northern Ireland – as well as places further afield – will be affected by the result. Like many English people hoping for a Yes vote, I’m motivated mainly by a desire to get rid of Trident.
I've been wary of blogging about Scottish independence, not least because I'm well aware of how many English people are writing about it in a way that implies they know more than the Scots. It seems that the referendum debate is engaging thousands of people in Scotland who were previously seen as apolitical. I don't doubt that they know more about the issues than commentators in London.
Rethink Trident, a broad coalition of individuals and organisations against government plans to spend £100bn on a new nuclear weapons system, will launch tomorrow.
A seven-mile scarf knitted by over 5,000 people has been rolled out between the Atomic Weapons Establishment sites at Aldermaston and Burghfield in Berkshire.
Quakers in Britain have expressed strong disagreement with the conclusion of the report published by the Trident Commission on 1 July which says the UK should retain its nuclear deterrent.
The Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) today (1 July) published a response to the Concluding Report of the Trident Commission, entitled Against the Tide.