No to Trident Replacement

The Tories ,if elected,will pursue the policy that the UK requires a stategic nuclear deterrent in a nuclear armed environment. This is a letter to my MP in response to this information.25.5.09

Dear Stephen O'Brien,

Today Gordon Brown, Prime Minister, used the words erroneous , misguided and a danger to the world to describe the nuclear test which took place in North Korea which was reported to day.I believe the same words can equally be used to describe the threatened renewal of the Trident nuclear submarines. Far from ensuring the security of future generations their potential use in a war condemns the peoples of the earth to constant fear and insecurity.
They are not, and never have been, a deterrent. We were led to the brink of disaster in spite of them in the Cold War. Geoff Hoon threatened to use them against Iraq in March 2002 and they certainly are not a deterrent against terrorists.I know from personel experiencejust how vulnerable the submarine base at Faslane really is and having a nuclear arsenal there lays the population of Britain to the risk of an attack.
It is true ,as you say,that nuclear weapons cannot be un-invented but it is wrong to imply that we cannot dismantle and dispense with them. Obama has said he wants a world free of nuclear weapons.They have never been sanctioned by the international community ie. the very people who would suffer in a nuclear war.Many governments have nothing to do with nuclear weapons.Of the 192 states in the UN only 8(and from today North Korea) have built or deployed nuclear weapons.
Please find enclosed a notice of a pamphlet written and printed by Jim Mc Clusky which should be essential readingby those currently in power who choose not to think in a new way and cling to the erroneous, misguided and dangerous belief that nuclear weapons will save our planet.
(The Nuclear Threat - Jim Mc Clusky printed by Russell Press Ltd)