Today our politicians decide whether or not to renew Trident; a Cold War era weapon that has no place in modern day humanity.
Being anti-nuclear does not make you anti-defence. Many of us who are anti-nuclear weapons believe that we should still maintain the Armed Forces, Marines and the Air Force. In fact Trident has been invested in at the expense of traditional forms of defence which we still use today. This is despite the fact that Trident is a 'weapon' which sits under the sea, in a submarine for decades, doing no-one any good.
It's a terrible shame when those a country sends out to fight for them return to homes which have not been looked after because of a 'lack of funding'. Yet we manage to set aside a hundred billion to fund a weapon that we say we will never use.
Britain's naval fleet used to be unmatched, so much so that the United Nations still has its International Maritime Organisation's HQ in London (the only UN Agency with its HQ in the UK). The British Air Force is still much respected around the world too; these traditional forms of defence are lacking investment and these are the ones that are being used at the moment in the Middle East and other places around the world. Why not scrap Trident and invest more in these?
It is also a shame when we are more concerned about 'sending millions to the EU' from which we got at least some benefits; like trade agreements, grants, travel in the EU zone without the ails of having to cue up for a visa, yet we don't bat an eyelid about the government storing £100,000,000,000 under water. Is it not time to abandon the sinking ship we call Trident?
Sinking ships are dangerous and can cause a huge loss of life, an accidental use of nuclear weapons would be catastrophic. People in Hiroshima and Nagasaki are still dealing with the after effects of having a nuclear bomb dropped on them over 70 years later. Most likely their children are receiving the punishment for a war they had nothing to do with. Children are still being born with deformities and many people are still suffering with respiratory issues due to the nuclear bombs that were dropped in 1945.
Imagine there was a car accident involving the truck that takes nuclear weapons to and from Faslane in Scotland, the effects would be horrific.
No doubt the Nice attacks will be mentioned during the speeches in support of Trident. But modern day defence challenges such as terrorism are exactly why Trident has become obsolete, if a country has a person of its nationality, born and raised within the country, carrying out attacks on their fellow citizens, how is Trident going to help?
Trident has not stopped terrorism and it never will.
Investing in our police forces, in early detection in tracking people who declare terrorist intents on social media is what will help resolve these threats.
Let's call our politicians to greater accountability on Trident, the same old arguments are just not going to cut it when they are deciding to spend an incredible amount of money on weapons of mass destruction. They could instead spend more money on the NHS, or fighting child poverty in the UK or even traditional defence. Call on your MP to have an open debate about Trident, equip yourself with the facts via the WMD Awareness page and have a conversation with your MP about the issues. Let's not carve out our future based on arguments of the past.