9 march 09 Trident Trial

I was tried with four other women from Trident Ploughshares at Reading Magistrates Court on 9 .3. 09.We were charged with obstructing the highway with a non motor vehicle at the Aldermaston weapons Factory in Berkshire on 27 october 08 My submission in my defense was as follows.

The atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki sixty four years ago when I was fifteen. Pathe Gazette news and the BBC radio left us in no doubt as to the horrifying , destructive,devastating effect of these bombs and the terrible suffering inflicted on the civilian population.Wilfred Burchett was the first correspondent to enter Hiroshima one month later. He sent an uncensored report to the Daily Express describing the cataclysmic suffering he encountered in the city after visiting a makeshift hospital.The title of his dis patch was- The Atomic Plague- the plague being the radiation. He said he was writing it as a warning to the world. The occupation authorities denied any radiation and staight away imposed strict censorship and withdrew his press accreditation. General Groves, responsible for the planning and manufacturing of the bomb reassured the US Gongress that radiation caused no undue suffering- in fact, he said, it is a very pleasant way to die.

By 1946 the US Stategic Bombing Survey concludedthat Japan would have surrendered even if the bombs had not been dropped. Wilfred Burchett said, "Hiroshima changed my life and I became active on the question of nuclear dis armament. It was not possible to stand by.

It would take too long to list the number of people who have striven to warn the world since then. Einstein,Mountbatten,General Lee Butler,Chomsky,Harold Pinter are a few of them. Sean McBride winner of the Nobel Peace Prize 1974 said then that the time had come for we, the people, to demand the outlawing of nuclear weapons- it is essential that the ordinary people of the world should have a say about their own survival.

The unbelievable escalation of nuclear weapons that has taken place since 1945 is manifested by the deployment of the Trident submarines and the ongoing enlargement of the Adermaston Weapons Establishment. Joining Trident Ploughshares in 1998 is my way of having my say about an issue that has affected people all over the world throughout my lifetime and even now is threatening the future of my grandchildren. I will, with the example of Wilfred Burchett always before me,remain active on the question of nuclear dis armament. It is not possible to stand by.

We were found guilty and fined £215.