Peace Group wants social care for Rochdale not nuclear weapons

Peace Group member,Patricia Gilligan, looking on as a member of the public signs one of the letters in Yorkshire Street on Saturday

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Rochdale and Littleborough Peace Group have stepped-up their campaign for the government to start spending money on social care not nuclear weapons.

They took their peace stall to the bottom of Yorkshire Street on Saturday morning (28 June) and asked people to sign letters to the Secretary of State for Health, Alan Johnson.

The letters tell the government: “You recently asked for people’s views on how to pay for essential non-medical care for older people. I believe that in a civilised society such care should be provided on the basis of need, free-of-charge and paid for by fair and progressive taxation.

"I would suggest that the government find this money by immediately decommissioning the existing Trident nuclear weapons system and scrapping plans to upgrade it. We need decent care for our elders, not ever more dangerous nuclear weapons of mass destruction.”

Peace Group spokesman Philip Gilligan said: “People in Rochdale are in no doubt about how they want their taxes spent. They don't want money squandered on nuclear weapons of mass destruction. They want decent care services for their parents, their grandparents and for their children. People were, again, signing letters as fast as we could produce them.

"In a week when the Pennine Acute Trust has admitted that it could be stopping key services at Rochdale Infirmary as soon as autumn this year, this is obviously a crucial issue for all of us. It is no surprise that we have another large bundle of letters to send to the Secretary of State for Health.

"We shall be campaigning on this issue throughout the summer. If the government would just halt its nuclear madness, we would soon have the money to provide decent care for our elders.”

To sign and send your own copy of the letter, visit the Peace Group website.