Posted by Louise Edge — 18 May 2011 at 4:32pm
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A
while back I got a letter from the Lib Dems telling me "Trident
will not be renewed this parliament - not on a Liberal Democrat watch”.
This
ran though my mind today as I watched Defence Secretary Liam Fox stand up in
parliament to pronounce ‘thunderbirds are go’ on the next phase of building a
replacement for Trident.
Posted by jossc — 4 February 2009 at 4:06pm
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Can David Miliband find a cure for nuclear weapons addiction?
Foreign Secretary David Miliband gave a speech today in London outlining a new '6 step programme' for creating a world free of nuclear weapons. His speech was largely a response to pressure created by recent high-profile campaigns emerging from the US, which have been calling for step by step progress towards the ultimate abolition of the world's nuclear arsenals.
Getting rid of the bomb? Sounds like radical stuff, but what's particularly radical is who is behind these campaigns. Not your 'usual suspect' peaceniks, but rather some of the biggest names in international diplomacy, who have come together to demand action on global security because they see the spread of nuclear weapons as the biggest threat to our immediate future.
Posted by jossc — 19 December 2008 at 4:32pm
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Trident - costs and 'independence' are both spinning out of control
The management of the Atomic Weapons Establishment at Aldermaston, the 'bomb factory' which makes and maintains the UK's nuclear warheads, is now controlled by private US companies following the sale of the government's 33 per cent holding yesterday.
The news, a further nail in the coffin of the flimsy pretence that Britain has an independent nuclear deterent, only came to light in a three line press statement released by BNFL, the state-owned group which officially 'owned' the government's stake.
Posted by jossc — 4 January 2008 at 2:13pm
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Reported in Scotland's Sunday Herald just before Christmas (but not seen by me until a few days ago, hence the delay in passing it on) was a tale to gladden the hearts of peaceniks everywhere - namely that the latest upgrade to the US designed Trident D5 nuclear missiles may not actually fit into British submarines.
Clearly falling well within the parameters of the "you couldn't make it up" school of classic cock-ups, the Herald reported that tender documents for future underwater-launched nuclear missiles issued by the US Navy last November specify a missile diameter of up to 120 inches. The diameter of Trident's D5 missile tubes is 87
inches.
The £15 to £20 billion figure stated by the Government and the media hides the real cost of replacing Trident. Using publicly available government figures, including their own running cost estimates, the real cost of replacing Trident is £76 billion. That is equivalent to over £4500 per British family, or approximately 40 per cent of Ministry of Defence conventional weapons purchases each year.
Posted by jossc — 6 March 2007 at 9:00am
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The government's figures hide the real cost of replacing Trident, with running cost estimates the real cost of replacing Trident is £76 billion. That is equivalent to over £4500 per British family.