No to Trident replacement!

I've received a number of e-mails from people asking my view about the proposed replacement for the ageing Trident nuclear weapons system. In fact, this is a topic I've mentioned in my first election leaflet - although the correspondence suggests that the price tag is now £97 billion instead of the £75 billion I had last heard - but there's inflation for you I suppose!

Keeping the budget deficit in check after the disastrous bank bailout will require some tough choices on tax increases and public spending; however, surely one not-so-tough option is to decide not to replace a weapons system that protects us from nothing and no-one. I'm reliably assured that there is no current evidence of plans by any neighbouring country to invade the United Kingdom, so surely in the longer term investing in health, education, infrastructure and science will be of far greater benefit to us. Just to add to that, I believe we should also avoid unnecessary wars of choice, such as that in Iraq, which put military personnel in danger - and surely if we are going to be involved in conflicts, our troops should have the best possible protective equipment. I'm not sure how Trident protects us from roadside bombs planted by terrorists.

The letter also makes the perfectly valid point that, with Obama now seriously talking about cuts in the number of weapons, other countries need to be willing to follow suit to rid the world of as many nuclear bombs as possible. If we are serious about stopping nuclear proliferation elsewhere, we ought to stop proliferating ourselves!

It's also the official policy of the Green Party not to replace Trident, and I'm delighted to offer my full support to that.