Main Gate 2016 is Worthless

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Keith Watts on January 20, 2011 at 11:38

Email: mail@nickharveymp.com

Permalink Reply by Martin Veart on January 20, 2011 at 11:47

Many thanks!

Keith Watts said:

Email: mail@nickharveymp.com

Permalink Reply by Janet King on January 21, 2011 at 21:48

I suggest that SNTT and CND work very closely this year. We could share a stall at federal Conference and join their demos as well as giving publicity to their local meetings and suggest that our members join CND.I am a member of both groups and I find CND publications very helpful.

May I depress you all for a minute? I believe that no UK Government has the courage to scrap the UK nuclear arsenal.That does not mean that I shall give up on SNTT or CND because campaigns like ours are really the only way to encourage people to make their non-nuclear views heard.CND says that 63% of the population want to scrap Trident and figures like this worry HMG so let`s keep the Gov`t on its toes by e-petitioning and organising fringe meetings. One day perhaps they will tell us the truth about their intentions.

Permalink Reply by Martin Veart on January 25, 2011 at 20:08

Subject: Spending on Successor: the planned replacement for Vanguard-class submarines

 

Dear Mr. Harvey,

Last week, reports have surfaced over the planned spending which will be taking place during the Initial Gate phase of the Successor boat which is said to be in the region of fifteen percent of the project’s total spending.

On the Government’s own figures therefore, £3 billion will have been already spent before Main Gate is reached.  Only then will the final decision on Trident will be put before Parliament in 2016.

In response to questions by Greenpeace, placed under the terms of the Freedom of Information Act, it seems that, by the time Main Gate comes around, work will already have been completed on large parts of the first Successor boat, with reactors and missile tubes ready for Successor boats Two and Three.

We, in “Say No to Trident” (SNTT), wish to know what you are doing to advocate the Liberal Democrat position of seeking alternatives to the Trident system?  You stated, during our own Party Conference held in Liverpool just last September, that Britain should not be committed to "another Cold War-scale nuclear deterrent and take up that stance for another 40 years.”  Yet this is exactly what will happen if the current plans go ahead.  By the time Main Gate comes under Parliamentary scrutiny, so much cash would have been already committed that MPs will have little choice but to follow through, leaving our nation burdened with a Cold War system until 2050.

As you are aware, Mr Harvey, SNTT is not just against Trident but all nuclear weapons.   This is not a standpoint you share with us, so I understand.  We are however all Liberal Democrats, united against prolonging the life of Trident.  I do not intend to reiterate the reasons for this; rather, I wish to point out that there is common ground where we can work together.

We, therefore, suggest that the Initial Gate spending is put before Parliament at the earliest opportunity.  In the current economic climate, there must be a case for this money to be better spent.   Britain is in the grip of an ongoing economic storm and anything that can be done to avoid wasting our nation’s resources must be top priority.

I am sure we can agree that Trident is a complete waste of money.

 

Best wishes,

Martin Veart

Say No to Trident, a Lib Dem ACT group

Permalink Reply by Martin Veart on January 26, 2011 at 10:11

On the Causes page I have opened out the appeal, inviting members to write to their local MP and get this issue brought before Parliament as soon as possible - http://bit.ly/gXoeZY

 

Please contact your own MP and let's get this hidden spending in the open as quickly as possible.  It is outrageous that in a time of cuts cuts and more cuts, spending on nuclear weapons continues apace.  As Janet King points out, it is not only here but on the weapons' maintenance centre at Aldermaston.

 

Don't stop with MPs though.  Write to your local papers too.  Remember the Liberal Democrats are against this!  This is a Labour / Conservative policy.