Peace Group say ‘Britain needs a pay rise not nuclear weapons’

Rochdale campaigners at the demonstration in London on Saturday (18 October 2014)

Peace campaigners from Rochdale and Littleborough Peace Group joined tens of thousands of other trade unionists in London on Saturday (18 October 2014). They formed part of the Peace Bloc on the TUC’s ‘Britain needs a pay rise’ march, which culminated with a rally in Hyde Park.

Philip Gilligan, on behalf of the Peace Group said: “Ordinary people in Rochdale and throughout the country have seen their real incomes drop year on year.

"Wages and benefits are not keeping pace with people’s increased costs of living.

"Meanwhile, successive governments have continued to squander £billions on useless and dangerous nuclear weapons of mass destruction which not only threaten the destruction of our world, but constantly divert scarce resources from the public services we all need.

"We agree with the TUC that Britain needs a pay rise and we know that the country could afford this, if the government would stop wasting £3billion per year on the Trident nuclear weapons system and scrap plans to squander another £100billion on even more dangerous and expensive nuclear weapons.

"We need a government that will scrap Trident and put the resources saved into the NHS, the jobs, the homes and the social and education services we need.”