Peace Group says ‘People not Trident: Scrap Britain’s nuclear weapons’

Peace Group says ‘People not Trident: Scrap Britain’s nuclear weapons’

Rochdale and Littleborough Peace Group promoted the message ‘People not Trident’ in Rochdale town centre on Saturday.

Supporters joined them in calling on the government to get rid of nuclear weapons, to scrap proposals to replace the Trident system and to spend the money saved on creating sustainable jobs, building homes, providing overseas aid, dealing with climate change promoting wellbeing and providing decent health, education and other essential services.

On behalf of the Peace Group, Philip Gilligan said: “The billions spent on Trident are an appalling waste. In terms of national security, nuclear weapons are irrelevant. Britain currently faces no nuclear threat and Trident is useless in addressing the real threats we face from terrorism, cyber warfare and climate change.

"It would, in any case, be grossly immoral and illegal to use nuclear weapons because massive civilian casualties would be unavoidable.

"Cancelling the proposed replacement of Trident would save around £100 billion which could be spent on the things we need in Rochdale and throughout the country. Such a saving could provide 150,000 new nurses or tuition fees for four million students. It could pay for the insulation of 15 million homes or build 1.5 million new affordable homes or create two million jobs. This is money we cannot afford to squander on nuclear weapons.

"Before the vote in Parliament in 2016, we need to make sure that there is a majority of MPs prepared to vote against our country buying more nuclear weapons we do not need.”