Press Releases & Updates 2000

Faslane is the base for the UK’s four Trident nuclear submarines, a nuclear weapons system recognized as unlawful by the ruling of Sheriff Margaret Gimblett in October last year when she acquitted the "Trident Three" who had disarmed a Trident-related research barge on Loch Goil.

Over two hundred activists are expected, from as far afield as Belgium and Washington State in the US. Eight parliamentarians, John McAllion MP and MSP, Caroline Lucas MEP, Patricia McKenna MEP (Eire), Dorothy-Grace Elder MSP, Lloyd Quinan MSP, Sandra White MSP, Tommy Sheridan MSP and Harold Best MP will be present and some of these have indicated their willingness to take part in the blockade itself. Also present will be over a dozen church leaders from Scotland and England, including Rev. Norman Shanks, representing a number of denominations, including Episcopal, Church of Scotland and Roman Catholic.

Among the messages of support from across the globe is one from American author Kurt Vonnegut. Kurt says: "You of Trident Ploughshares 2000 are the shock troops of the sane in the war against insanity. I am honored by your invitation to be on the front lines with you at Faslane on Saint Valentines’ day, and especially in a year so full of zeros . . a blank slate. Yours will be among the very first messages to end its blankness, and with this oldie but goodie: Thou shalt not kill. Sorry I can’t be there. Pax Vobiscum Kurt Vonnegut".

A Trident Ploughshares spokesperson said:

"After the Greenock ruling we stepped up our efforts to bring others into the work of confronting and preventing the planned war crime called Trident. The response to the call to Faslane on 14th February shows that these efforts are beginning to pay off."

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