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UK scientists, artists demand Trident nukes be scrapped

Sunday, 12 April 2015 5:56 PM [ Last Update: Sunday, 12 April 2015 5:55 PM ]

British scientists and artists call for an end to the country’s Trident nuclear weapons program.

Decommissioning Trident nuclear weapons would be popular with voters and supported by a majority of candidates standing in the May 7 general election, luminaries from music, the arts and the legal world have said in a letter.

Despite the two main parties’ insistence last week that they would both renew Britain’s nuclear deterrent, the strategy is described as a relic from the past in the letter published in the Observer.

The open letter suggests that Britain should become the first member of the UN Security Council to give up nuclear weapons.

It said, “Poll after poll reveals that it is indeed a majority popular demand throughout the UK. One poll recently revealed 81% of 500 general election candidates are opposed to renewal.”

“Britain should use its capacity for innovation by responding to real human and social needs … Continuing to invest in nuclear weapons is actively depleting military and other effective defenses we might need in the 21st century. We should invest military spending on conflict prevention. By moving on from Trident we can more effectively serve the needs and the potential of our country and a changing world,” it added.

Now political analyst William Spring in London says, “It is a pointless, futile exercise for Britain to actually use the nuclear tridents. It would be impossible to use it in any case. It is not an independent deterrent; it could not be used without the American support.”

The UK Trident programme was announced in July 1980. Since 1998, Trident has been the only British nuclear weapon system in service. Its stated purpose is to provide "the minimum effective nuclear deterrent as the ultimate means to deter the most extreme threat."

HRK/GHN

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