Letter sent to Anneliese Dodd, MP Oxford East – The entry into force of the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons on Friday 22nd January 2021 -

Posted: 18th January 2021

Dear Anneliese

Thank you for all your good current hard work.

Treaty bans nuclear weapons.

Oxford City Council agreed overwhelmingly a resolution in January 2020 to encourage the UK government to take action on nuclear weapons by backing the multilateral UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW). Oxford City joined hundreds of towns and cities and 122 nations who voted in favour of banning nuclear weapons.

Now 51 nations’ parliaments have ratified the treaty and the treaty will enter into force on Friday 22nd January 2021. It makes nuclear weapons illegal in the countries that sign the treaty and will outlaw nuclear weapons. The UK government refused to participate and is one of nine countries that have nuclear weapons  Almost 200 countries do not.

Members of Oxford CND and supporters will mark the entry into force of the Treaty on Friday in socially distanced ways in view of the current Covid lockdown.

It is important to appreciate that this Treaty is unique, as it is focused on the humanitarian consequences of the use of nuclear weapons. The new treaty will make it illegal under international law to develop, test, produce, manufacture, acquire, possess, stockpile, transfer, use or threaten to use nuclear weapons. It also makes it illegal to assist or encourage anyone to engage in these activities.

Armed convoys carrying nuclear warheads regularly travel past Oxford as they travel between the nuclear bomb factories and the Trident nuclear submarine base. As a member of Oxford CND and a nukewatcher, I monitored the first convoy of 2021 as it travelled north through England last Thursday, reaching Coulport in Scotland on Friday 15th January. 

Freedom of Information requests have revealed that Oxford University has accepted funding and worked with the UK Atomic Weapons Establishments who design and produce UK nuclear warheads. The treaty gives the University and the Government the opportunity to engage in the global nuclear disarmament process to give us all a world without nuclear weapons.

The entry into force of the ban treaty signals a massive change globally. Recognising that nuclear weapons are one of the greatest threats to humanity – the countries of the United Nations have outlawed them. Countries which everyday threaten to launch nuclear weapons are outside the norm of civilised society.

Please can you press for the UK government to take Trident off patrol, sign up to the Treaty, disarm the warheads and put the freed-up resources into tackling the other existential crisis – climate change.

Yours

Nigel Day