For want of a missile a nation was lost?
Written by Nic Wistreich
|
12 March 2007
| in
diaries -
politics and society
As the film industry makes record box office glorifying 'war porn' in 300, its easy to forget the reality that we as voters have some impact on. Apologies for bringing politics in, but tomorrow in a rushed vote, at least five years sooner than it needs to be taken, the government, supported by the Conservatives, are likely to vote to renew Trident, Britain's nuclear weapon. To quote an email I received tonight "The man who told us he went to war to destroy weapons of mass
destruction in Iraq (there were none), at a cost of over 650,000 lives,
now says he wants to spend around £50 billion on weapons of mass
destruction with the potential to slaughter 40 million people."
"to the prime
minister: you are going to be remembered for lots of things. You don't
have to be remembered for replacing Trident."
David Blunkett
While two MPs having resigned over the issue and two thirds of government back benchers plan to oppose the vote, David Cameron's continued support for Tony Blair's defence policies looks like it will win. Even Mikhail Gorbachov, who helped end the cold war, has criticised the plan in a letter to the Times. Asides from the fact that terrorists don't care - and can't be stopped by - the nuclear deterrent; that the best way to persuade countries that they don't need to defend themselves with nukes is to have none that could point at them; or that America supposedly is the only country that can operate Britain's nukes - is the fact that they're housed not anywhere near Westminster, but in a otherwise beautiful loch in Scotland.
For the SNP it's been a major campaigning issue, and with them now for the first time in a leading position in the opinion polls ahead of national elections, one does wonder what happens if the vote is won to renew Trident, and the SNP goes on to win in May. If the success is followed with a win at a referendum on independence, Blair's eagerness to rush an unpopular policy into parliament before he leaves could be quite devestating. It's only from living in Scotland that its become clear just how much resentment there is here to decisions made 400 miles away, not least when it leads to the deaths of locals fighting such a needless war. Tho apparently this week sees the first ever Scot to appear on a Bank of England banknote, so the winds of change are clearly a blowin'.
Just before lunch yesterday I read of a 
Jon H from Finland at 