nuclear-news

No decision on UK’s Trident nuclear weapons until after next election

“Pushing this decision back to after the next election will hopefully allow politicians to catch up with what the majority of the public and a growing number of military voices acknowledge – that nuclear weapons are a costly irrelevance to the threats Britain faces.”

Trident decision delayed until after the election – UK Politics, – The Independent, 20 Oct 10, Arguments about the need to replace the Trident nuclear weapons system will continue to rage until the next general election after the Prime Minister announced a delay of at least six years. David Cameron said the Government would extend the life of the Vanguard class of submarines which carry the UK’s nuclear deterrent, so that the decision to start construction of new submarines need not be taken until “about 2016”.

The decision was welcomed by anti-nuclear campaigners and eases potential conflict between the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats over the future of Trident…..

.. Under the programme, the Royal Navy operates 58 nuclear-armed submarine-launched ballistic missiles and around 200 nuclear warheads on four Vanguard-class ballistic missile submarines from Clyde Naval Base on Scotland’s west coast….

…. Kate Hudson, general secretary of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, said: “Pushing this decision back to after the next election will hopefully allow politicians to catch up with what the majority of the public and a growing number of military voices acknowledge – that nuclear weapons are a costly irrelevance to the threats Britain faces.”

Trident decision delayed until after the election – UK Politics, UK – The Independent

October 19, 2010 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | politics, UK | antinuclear, nuclear, nuclear spin, nuclear weapons