Posted by Louise Edge — 21 September 2010 at 3:26pm
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Deputy leader Simon Hughes opposes Trident replacement: "the case is winnable and we must not yield."
Monday and Tuesday at conference have been a bit of a rollercoaster for Team Trident.
Political conferences, stuffed as they are with politicians and media types, are always awash with rumours. And as we followed the speeches, the press coverage, the tweets and just plain old chatted to people we swayed between pessimism and optimism.
Climate campaigner Louise Hutchins reports from the Liberal Democrat party conference:
Here in Liverpool amongst the Lib Dem faithful, there is a mood of embattled determination to give their leaders the benefit of the doubt – for now. There's also a keen awareness that delivery on some of the party's touchstone issues is urgently needed to stem the haemorrhaging of support seen in opinion polls.
Posted by Louise Edge — 20 September 2010 at 12:08pm
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Greetings from a bustling Liberal Democrat party conference in Liverpool! Team Trident (aka Simon, Zoe and me) are here to talk to people about one of the big issues of the day – whether or not the coalition government proceeds with hugely expensive plans for a new generation of nuclear weapons in the midst of the biggest cuts to public spending in living memory.
Posted by jossc — 16 September 2010 at 1:49pm
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With the Liberal Democrats' first conference since they entered government looming later this week, we commissioned a poll to see how party members are feeling about Trident replacement. Not surprisingly, given that the party campaigned on scrapping 'like for like' replacement during the election campaign, not many are in favour.
As I write, the eventual outcome of the
general election is still in the balance and with parliament well and truly
hung (although I prefer the less pejorative phrase 'balanced parliament'), it's
anyone's guess as to who will actually form a government. But it's clear that
the Lib Dems are going to have a major influence on whatever form that
government eventually takes.
Reacting to the launch of the Liberal Democrat manifesto, Greenpeace executive director John Sauven said:
"The Liberal Democrats have set out the most progressive environmental policies of all the major parties, and they now have a real chance to make them count. As part of a coalition government, this party could establish red lines on issues like Heathrow and coal power and focus instead on developing the clean technologies that will define the 21st Century.
Greenpeace today welcomed the announcement by Nick Clegg
that the Liberal Democrats would review the decision to replace the Trident
nuclear weapons system.
And they also urged the government to delay the ‘initial
gate' process for the proposed successor submarine - which commits up to an
estimated £2.1bn to the start of design work (1).
The Ministry of Defence currently plans to make the
decision about whether to proceed with initial gate this September while
Parliament is in recess.
