Blog: Peace

Let's cut Trident, save ourselves a fortune and make the world a safer place

Posted by Louise Edge — 5 May 2010 at 12:20pm - Comments
Edinburgh Greenpeace members with local MP Mark Lazarowicz

Over the last six weeks Greenpeace campaigners and active supporters have been energetically campaigning to raise the level of debate about proposals to spend £97bn on new nuclear weapons.

Together we’ve been lobbying candidates, writing to newspapers, polling people on the streets and doing much, much more behind the scenes - helping to make nuclear weapons an election issue for the first time in decades.

Article tagged as: ban ki-moon, disarmament, NPT, nuclear weapons, peace, trident

Let's cut Trident, save ourselves a fortune and make the world a safer place

Posted by Louise Edge — 5 May 2010 at 12:20pm - Comments
Edinburgh Greenpeace members with local MP Mark Lazarowicz

Over the last six weeks Greenpeace campaigners and active supporters have been energetically campaigning to raise the level of debate about proposals to spend £97bn on new nuclear weapons.

Together we’ve been lobbying candidates, writing to newspapers, polling people on the streets and doing much, much more behind the scenes - helping to make nuclear weapons an election issue for the first time in decades.

Article tagged as: ban ki-moon, disarmament, NPT, nuclear weapons, peace, trident

Chop or not? Cutting Trident is a winner with the public and the TUC

Posted by Louise Edge — 29 April 2010 at 2:24pm - Comments

The TUC's Frances O'Grady on the gaping hole at the heart of Britain's finances

Tonight sees the final leaders’ debate of election 2010, and with the polls still close and Gordon Brown facing up to the public after his 'bigot' gaffe, it should be a lively one.

The subject of the debate is the real issue of the day – the economy and how we are going to deal with our massive national deficit.

Article tagged as: frances o'grady, green economy, trident, tuc

The Times - are they a changing?

Posted by jossc — 21 April 2010 at 3:08pm - Comments

What interesting times we're living in. The unexpected Lib-Dem surge has made this election impossible to call, and at the same time forced both Labour and the Tories to debate questions which they'd far rather ignore. How do they intend to pay down our frighteningly large national debt, for example?

Nick Clegg put the spotlight squarely on Trident in last week's leaders' debate, arguing that £100bn to replace a Cold War relic that has no military value makes little sense at the best of times, let alone when we're facing financial meltdown.

Article tagged as: election 2010, nuclear weapons, trident

Alistair McGowan: Surely there must be better things to do with £97bn than blow up the world?

Posted by jossc — 15 April 2010 at 4:29pm - Comments

In the latest addition to our Cut Trident video wall, comedian and impressionist extraordinaire Alistair McGowan muses on alternative ways to spend the £97bn that the government is currently planning to blow on new nuclear weapons.

Article tagged as: alistair mcgowan, nuclear weapons, trident, videos

Trident: the elephant in the cuts 'debating room'

Posted by Louise Edge — 8 April 2010 at 4:53pm - Comments

Cuts, cuts, cuts! – the papers are full of debate about the budget, whether it was radical enough, what cuts different political parties are going to make if they get elected, what should be protected, what should be axed, when they should act…

Yet so far our politicians are missing the easiest cut of all. Cutting plans to waste money on new nuclear weapons which, as last year's In the Firing Line investigation revealed, will cost UK taxpayers a shocking £97 billion over the next 30 years.

Article tagged as: budget, nuclear weapons, trident

What are your election candidates saying about climate change?

Posted by jamie — 7 April 2010 at 10:36am - Comments

Election time is here again © CC Rodrigo Ono

And we're off! The election campaign is officially underway, although in practice it's been rumbling away for months. Listening to the news over the past few days, the political commentators seem certain that it's currently anyone's guess as to who will form the next government: Labour, the Tories or (whisper it) a coalition.

This uncertainty is no bad thing. For a start, it makes the process much more interesting, but it also means that with no party certain of victory, constituents have a chance to influence their parliamentary candidates' stances on various issues, particularly if they're in one of the key marginal constituencies which will decide the election. It's not a fair system but for the time being, we have to work with what we've got.

Article tagged as: climate change, election, trident

Nukes out of Europe - the Cold War is Over

Posted by jossc — 31 March 2010 at 2:56pm - Comments

Before sun-up yesterday morning a Greenpeace team scaled the mesh and barbed wire fence surrounding the US Air Force base at Kleine Brogel in Belgium.

Their mission? To block the runway and prevent nuclear capable F-16 bombers taking off for their morning training session.

Article tagged as: belgium, NATO, nuclear weapons

Reduce nuclear arms, set an example

Posted by jossc — 22 March 2010 at 4:38pm - Comments

Sandra Butcher, senior program coordinator, international secretariat, Pugwash. This article first appeared in Comment is Free on Monday 22 March.

 

Gordon Brown told the Foreign Press Association in London on Friday that he would highlight the upcoming "moments of opportunity and challenge". He said we "must now urgently do more to build upon that brief moment of collective international will", and he reminded us that "global problems need global solutions".

Despite this rhetoric, and earlier UK statements promoting the ultimate goal of a nuclear weapons-free world, in reality Brown's comments on nuclear weapons were tepid, sadly leaving him in some ways behind the Tory party lines as discussed by shadow foreign minister David Lidington last week at the Royal Society. There was certainly no sign that Brown intends to encourage his government to show transformative leadership in this area.

Article tagged as: global zero, nuclear weapons, obama, peace, trident

Reduce nuclear arms, set an example

Posted by jossc — 22 March 2010 at 4:38pm - Comments

Sandra Butcher, senior program coordinator, international secretariat, Pugwash. This article first appeared in Comment is Free on Monday 22 March.

 

Gordon Brown told the Foreign Press Association in London on Friday that he would highlight the upcoming "moments of opportunity and challenge". He said we "must now urgently do more to build upon that brief moment of collective international will", and he reminded us that "global problems need global solutions".

Despite this rhetoric, and earlier UK statements promoting the ultimate goal of a nuclear weapons-free world, in reality Brown's comments on nuclear weapons were tepid, sadly leaving him in some ways behind the Tory party lines as discussed by shadow foreign minister David Lidington last week at the Royal Society. There was certainly no sign that Brown intends to encourage his government to show transformative leadership in this area.

Article tagged as: global zero, nuclear weapons, obama, peace, trident
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