Nuclear non-proliferation should include the UK

I was going to write a piece about the recent anouncement that the USA and Russia are committing to reduce the number of nuclear warheads they have in service, and that we in the UK should be doing likewise. But George Monbiot has written something much better than I could, in his article War with the Ghosts which I urge you to read of you have not already done so.

The non-proliferation treaty, to which the UK has signed up to, commits the nuclear powers “to pursue negotiations in good faith on … nuclear disarmament”. So why the hell are we as a country still planning to spend tens of billions of pounds on replacing the Tridant “nuclear deterrant”. This is especially ludicrous — as if it’s not already stupid enough — when we are in the depths of a recesion, when we can least afford it. The Lib Dems are at least saying they would consider other options to like-for-like replacement of Trident — but does this go far enough?

We need to keep telling the politicians — who, after all, are in government to represent us — that there are better things to spend taxpayers’ money on. Even a duck house with a moat would be a better use of the money (in that it is 10 orders of magnitude less).

You could also sign up to the Global Zero: Together for Zero petition.