Press Releases & Updates 2007

With the government and shadow cabinet clinging to Cold War theories and pretending that we can protect ourselves with weapons of mass destruction, the vote to replace Trident on 14th March and to commit the UK to keeping nuclear weapons until 2050 was a foregone conclusion. Throughout the debate on Trident, no justification for a policy that depends on mass extermination was presented, and dozens of MPs put loyalty to their party line above their conscience in voting for the government.

"My MP said that he disagreed with the government, and had not met any constituents who wanted to spend billions on replacing Trident," said Andrew Gray from Newcastle today. "But when it came to the vote, he still voted with the government. This vote has had nothing to do with our security or tackling the real threats that face the world (including climate change and nuclear proliferation), but everything to do with party ambitions and political posturing." (1)

The Aldermaston blockade will take place all around the Atomic Weapons Establishment (AWE), and particularly at the West Gate area, where building vehicles are busy entering the AWE to build the new ORION laser building. ORION will enable a new generation of warheads to be developed, and is not needed merely for Trident stockpile stewardship. In combination with other developments at Aldermaston, including the new LARCH super-computer and a planned hydrodynamics research facility (HRF), the ORION laser is a clear sign that the decision to develop successor nuclear weapons long pre-dates the March vote in Parliament. (2)

The blockade on Easter Tuesday (10th April) will begin from about 7am and may continue all morning, with dozens of groups coming from Cornwall to Kent, and from Southampton to Swansea. Many of those coming have not been to Aldermaston before, and the blockade is expected to be the start of a growing and increased campaign against nuclear weapons in England. (3)

CONTACTS

  website: http://www.tridentploughshares.org/aldermaston
  Andrew, 0845 4588 368 (to Sunday) or 07804 640643 (Monday 9th)
  Kate (weekend and Monday), 07748 015601
  Sian (press contact for Tuesday), 07887 802879

NOTES FOR EDITORS

(1) Andrew Gray lives within Nic Brown’s constituency of Newcastle East and Wallsend. Nic has publicly opposed Trident replacement in the House of Commons (speech in Hansard for 1 Feb 2007, column 410) and in the local press (Newcastle Journal), but supported the government in both the amendment and substantive motion to replace Trident on 14th March. The cost of developing and maintaining a Trident replacement over its full life has been estimated at 76 billion pounds, equal to the sum identified by the Stern report as the contribution the UK needs to make to prevent climate change. Failures by the nuclear weapons states to disarm (coupled with plans for weapons renewal or replacement) have been blamed for the erosion of the nuclear non-proliferation treaty, including failure to reach agreement at the last treaty review in 2005 and increasing risks of proliferation among non-nuclear weapons states.

(2) The ORION laser building is currently being built at AWE, and the LARCH super-computer was due to be commissioned during 2006. These, together with the HRF and material testing laboratories were part of a site development plan for AWE (SDP) made public in July 2002, and have been widely seen as indicating a decision to build a new generation of warheads at AWE. Prior to the SDP, funding for AWE was expected to be cut by a third in March 2000: the move from funding cuts to investment in new weapons technologies indicates that the decision to replace Trident warheads was taken in principle four years before the vote in Parliament, and not within the next Parliament as claimed by government. See also brief notes at www.tridentploughshares.org/article1476.

(3) The Easter Tuesday blockade at Aldermaston is being organised by Trident Ploughshares, working with Block the Builders. Block the Builders have held regular blockades at Aldermaston since May 2005. See www.blockthebuilders.org.uk for future blockades.

ENDS

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