Campaigners prepare to take direct action at Trident production site
Less than a week after Gordon Brown committed the government to retaining a British-manufactured nuclear weapon, a Defence Select Committee report has raised strong and searching questions about the need to replace Trident. Meanwhile, NVDA camapign group Block the Builders is preparing to take action at AWE Aldermaston - Britain's Trident production site - on 10 July.
Less than a week after Gordon Brown committed the government to retaining a British-manufactured nuclear weapon, a Defence Select Committee report has raised strong and searching questions about the need to replace Trident. Meanwhile, NVDA camapign group Block the Builders is preparing to take action at AWE Aldermaston - Britain's Trident production site - on 10 July.
The report - “The future of the UK’s Strategic Nuclear Deterrent: the strategic context” – which was officially published today, castigates the Ministry of Defence for having refused to participate in the Committee’s inquiry - held earlier this year - and calls for a genuine and meaningful debate on any future nuclear weapons system.
The report also calls on the government to inform the public of what decisions need to be made and when they must be taken and implemented.
In a Commons statement on Wednesday, Tony Blair confirmed that a decision on replacement would be taken this year, but ignored the question of whether there would be a parliamentary vote on the matter.
No time like the present
At AWE Aldermaston, work has already started on the £183m Orion laser facility, suggesting that the Committee’s fears - that unless there is a fully informed debate, “we could find that in practice taken the decision to keep the deterent” - are well-founded. The Aldermaston site is undergoing radical changes and more specialist warhead scientists and engineers are being recruited.
On 10 July campaigners will be returning to AWE for what has become an ongoing monthly blockade of construction traffic entering the site.
Joined by Green MEP Caroline Lucas and CND Chair Kate Hudson, blockaders intend to halt construction on the Orion laser site and demonstrate that while the government continues to stall the debate, the public are already making their voices heard.
Over the past four years, anti-nuclear campaigners have been warning that a massive investment and building programme at AWE Aldermaston suggests that, whatever the Defence Select Committee, parliament or the public may say, the government fully intends to retain a nuclear weapons system.
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NOTES
Blockade details: Monday 10 July, 7am. See
http://www.blockthebuilders.org.uk/action/
In a recent ICM poll, 81% of the British public said they believed that the decision on whether or not to replace Trident should be made by a vote in Parliament.
See http://www.aldermaston.net/news/article.php?id=60 for recent image of construction plant on the Orion site
The report also calls on the government to inform the public of what decisions need to be made and when they must be taken and implemented.
In a Commons statement on Wednesday, Tony Blair confirmed that a decision on replacement would be taken this year, but ignored the question of whether there would be a parliamentary vote on the matter.
No time like the present
At AWE Aldermaston, work has already started on the £183m Orion laser facility, suggesting that the Committee’s fears - that unless there is a fully informed debate, “we could find that in practice taken the decision to keep the deterent” - are well-founded. The Aldermaston site is undergoing radical changes and more specialist warhead scientists and engineers are being recruited.
On 10 July campaigners will be returning to AWE for what has become an ongoing monthly blockade of construction traffic entering the site.
Joined by Green MEP Caroline Lucas and CND Chair Kate Hudson, blockaders intend to halt construction on the Orion laser site and demonstrate that while the government continues to stall the debate, the public are already making their voices heard.
Over the past four years, anti-nuclear campaigners have been warning that a massive investment and building programme at AWE Aldermaston suggests that, whatever the Defence Select Committee, parliament or the public may say, the government fully intends to retain a nuclear weapons system.
---------------------------------
NOTES
Blockade details: Monday 10 July, 7am. See
http://www.blockthebuilders.org.uk/action/ In a recent ICM poll, 81% of the British public said they believed that the decision on whether or not to replace Trident should be made by a vote in Parliament.
See
http://www.aldermaston.net/news/article.php?id=60 for recent image of construction plant on the Orion site