Posted: 28th May 2014
On Tuesday 29th April, Salisbury Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) held a public meeting with special guest speaker Andrew Dey from Action for Atomic Weapons Eradication. Action AWE is a political action campaign group specifically campaigning to bring about an end to nuclear weapons in this country.
Replacement of the current Trident missile and Vanguard Submarine combination is due to be agreed by Parliament in 2016. Andrew Dey explained that Action AWE is aiming to bring the future of nuclear weapons to the forefront of politics on the run-up to the General Election in 2015; now is the right time to bring about an end to nuclear weapons. He emphasised that the Government is already spending £2 billion on developments at Aldermaston and Burghfield, Britain’s nuclear bomb making facilities, on top of the ongoing maintenance costs in this time of supposed austerity.
Also speaking at the event and taking questions were Salisbury Councillors Michael Pope for the Green party and Tom Corbin for the Labour party who is also Labour’s parliamentary candidate for Salisbury.
Michael said ‘I fully support the campaign to scrap Trident and not to replace it with another nuclear weapon system. The U.K. should adhere to its legal obligations as a signatory to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. We are currently spending £2 billion on Trident with the prospect of committing another £100 billion pounds and at the same time services are being cut, including cuts to the armed forces budget.’
Whilst Tom covered Labour’s stance on supporting a minimal replacement of Trident while working to bring about multilateral nuclear disarmament, Tom said his personal view was that the abhorrent retention of nuclear weapons can only be comprehended if it can be believed that the Prime Minister of the time would ever authorise their use, otherwise the weapons no longer serve as a deterrent. Tom therefore believes that the days of nuclear weapons are numbered, as the society that we live in today no longer supports or accepts their actual use or existence. Andrew Dey believes that we are in an age where we can lead the world towards nuclear disarmament; this is the right time.
In the photo below: (Left to right) Tom Corbin (Labour councillor), Michael Pope (Green councillor), Andrew Dey (Action AWE), Caroline Lanyon & Moura MacDonagh (Salisbury CND) at public meeting 29 April 2014. Click on photo to enlarge!