Monday saw the commons vote in favour of renewing the Trident nuclear missile delivery system. We were treated to the nauseating assurance from our new PM that she would have no qualms about pressing the button and killing hundreds of thousands of people – although for what possible reason was not spelled out.
Sarah Lunnon, Stroud Green Party’s parliamentary spokesperson, responded:
“The government’s own strategic defence review puts the nuclear threat as a second tier priority behind cyber warfare and, of course, climate change. By renewing Trident and starving our armed forces of equipment and boots on the ground we reduce their capacity to respond to the known identified risks we currently face.
Renewing Trident drives other countries to acquire or keep their own nukes under the aptly named Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD) philosophy, actually making the world less secure.
We are currently experiencing the third hottest year in a row, with global temperatures at +1.5 degrees on pre-industrial levels. There are many known threats to our security which we need to address; that require knowledge, engineering and enterprise to solve. Let’s tackle the problems we have, and stop chasing Cold War ghosts.
Our “ultimate insurance policy” starves our armed forces of manpower and equipment, makes the world less secure and, let’s not forget, it is eye-watering expensive. If my insurance policy resulted in incinerating my house and all it contained I might find a different insurer.”