Liberal Youth motion?

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Permalink Reply by Rebekah Gronowski on October 23, 2010 at 4:18

I have drafted an Emergency Motion for you which you can feel free to use, or not, or to use those parts which are relevant to yourselves. I have used some parts of our own original Motion for the Federal Conference and other bits of information.

Generally, motions should be drafted around the three Ps:

• the Problem(s) which need to be solved;
• the Principle(s) which underlie the solution; and
• the Proposals which must be the heart of the motion

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Liberal Youth Emergency Motion

Renewal of Trident

Conference notes that:-

a) the Coalition Government has deferred the decision to renew Trident until at least 2016.

b) the UK Government, as a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, should pledge itself to decommissioning its nuclear arsenal and abandoning any plans to retain a nuclear deterrent as, under the terms of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, all nations are duty-bound to work towards a planet free of nuclear arms

Conference further notes that:

a) Britain is currently in the worst financial crisis since the end of the Second World War

b) Now that the funding for Trident has been shifted to the Ministry of Defence budget, it is no longer a viable proposition and no longer affordable. Retention of Trident would deprive other areas of MoD expenditure of vital funding, such as the maintaining of adequate Armed Forces for the defence of our own country and the proper equipping and safety of our Armed Forces both here and where engaged in wars abroad.

Conference believes that nuclear weapons are a bad investment and no longer necessary in today's world. They are a remnant of Cold War conditions which no longer exist.

Liberal Youth believes that the Liberal Democrats should be the first party to begin the campaign for a world without nuclear weapons. Universal nuclear disarmament is an absolute necessity if we are to secure any kind of future for our generation and those to follow.

Conference resolves to oppose any renewal of Trident or a replacement and calls for:-

1) assurances from Nick Clegg and Lib Dems in Government to stand by their Election Manifesto pledge to resist all attempts by the Government to pursue the need for Trident and to cancel any planned 'like-for-like replacement' of the Trident system.

2) Our Party to have the courage to lead the way towards unilateral disarmament because multilateralism is ineffective and no longer a viable option.

3. The withdrawal of the Trident weapons system from active duty.

4. No further procurement by Britain of any other type of nuclear weapon.

These steps will save up to £100 billion during the planned lifetime of the Trident replacement systems.

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I hope this will help you - good luck!

Rebekah