Nuclear disaster on Clyde will be problem for us all

Published 8 Dec 2010 11:30 0 Comments

AS the UK Con Dem Government slashes public spending, with job losses and many services possibly having to be delivered by the private sector in the future, we must ask whether paying £100 billion for a new generation of nuclear weapons is now an expense we can not afford?

Not that nukes can ever be morally justified, affordable or not.

But in this new world where our biggest threats come from climate change and international terrorism, and not from the past era of the Cold War, nuclear weapons do not meet Scotland's or the UK's security needs, and have been described by retired generals as 'useless'.

Even former Labour government Defence Secretary Des Browne (now Lord Browne) has argued the decision to retain Trident 'looks both financially untenable and strategically unwise'.

To compound matters, we now know that if Trident goes ahead it will be at the expense of major cuts in the armed forces, with big job losses in Scotland at the likes of RAF Lossiemouth and Kinloss. Now it has been revealed the UK Con Dem Government are planning to privatise the nuclear sub base at Coulport.

This is something trade unions, SNP politicians and anti-nuclear campaigners are rightly dead against, as it will definitely not make the west of Scotland any safer. I put forward an anti-nuclear weapons motion on behalf of our SNP council group at a meeting of Inverclyde Council last year, calling on all councillors to oppose a new generation of nukes and to unite with a UK local authority coalition against nuclear weapons.

Sadly, the Labour group, along with the Tory, independent and Lib Dem councillors, opposed our motion.

Indeed the Tory councillor and one or two of the Labour members argued it had nothing to do with our council.

If there was ever a nuclear accident, attack or sabotage on the Clyde, it would have everything to with us in Inverclyde and Scotland.

Councillor Jim MacLeod, SNP Group Leader, Inverclyde Council

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