POLITICIANS from the SNP, Scottish Labour and the Scottish Greens have united to call for the scrapping of Trident to mark the International Day for the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons.
SNP MSP Bill Kidd said Trident was an “immoral and expensive status symbol” today, as he restated his party’s backing for Scotland and the rest of the world to be free of nuclear weapons.
The United Nations General Assembly has designated today as the International Day for the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons. It is being celebrated for the third time today.
In a recent vote in Westminster this summer, all but one of Scotland’s MPs – Tory David Mundell – voted to scrap the weapons system on the Clyde. They were outvoted by the Commons as a whole.
Kidd – who is co-President of Parliamentarians for Nuclear Non-Proliferation and Disarmament (PNND) – said the Tory government’s decision to renew Trident was starving public services of much needed funds.
The SNP Glasgow Anniesland MSP said: “It is wrong in principle to build yet more nuclear weapons – but the staggering cost shows how committed the Tories are to this immoral and expensive status symbol at the expense of investment in public services and conventional defence.
“Trident will cost the taxpayer an estimated £167bn to £205bn at a time when the Tories tell us that ordinary families must bear the brunt of austerity. It’s time for the Tories to ditch their boys-with-toys obsession with nuclear weapons and invest in the defence forces we need – like the frigates we were promised would be built on the Clyde.”
Labour Lothian MSP Neil Findlay, who ran Jeremy Corbyn’s successful re-election leadership campaign in Scotland, called for fresh moves to get rid of the nuclear weapons system at Faslane.
Findlay said: “At a time when our public services are crying out for investment and when the threat our security comes from terrorism it seems to me both illogical and immoral to spend huge amounts of public money on Trident.
“We must however use all our collective intelligence and initiative to provide real and genuine alternative jobs for the people who work on the Trident project.”
Ross Greer, Scottish Greens’ external affairs spokesperson, said anti-Trident MSPs in all parties should co-operate on putting forward legislation at Holyrood to make it difficult for nuclear convoys to have access to Scotland’s roads and waters.
The Green MSP for West Scotland said: “Scotland will continue to take a leading role in the global campaign to rid the world of nuclear weapons. In order to scrap Trident here at home, we see the need to work with other parties to put pressure on the Westminster government. We’ll also work with other anti-Trident MSPs to put forward creative legislation at Holyrood that makes it difficult for dangerous nuclear convoys to operate on our roads and in our waters.”
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