CND - sixty years old

My article in today’s Cornish Guardian marks the 60th anniversary of the launch of CND. It is as follows:

This week marks the 60th anniversary of the launch of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament at a massive public meeting in London on 17th February 1958. Soon after, the first Aldermaston March attracted a significant amount of attention and it was around this same time that the famous CND or peace symbol designed by Gerald Holtom, incorporating the semaphore letters N and D (for nuclear disarmament), was unveiled.

I have been a member of CND for more than 25 years, and I am proud to lead a political party that has had a manifesto commitment of complete nuclear disarmament since the early 1980s.

It is my view that the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945 must forever remind us of the destructive power of nuclear weapons. And this needs to make us vigilant in our efforts to rid the World of such weapons of mass destruction and prevent the terrible human tragedy, that would unfold, should they ever be used again.

CND has been extremely effective and has been an important force in pressing the UK Government and others to conclude a number of treaties such as the Partial Test Ban Treaty, the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and the Intermediate Range Nuclear Forces Treaty.

I believe that CND is as relevant now as it was back in 1958, not least because there is a great deal of work still to be done to achieve the goal of a nuclear-free world.

I was certainly very disappointed by the parliamentary vote in June 2016, when MPs voted by 472 votes to 117 to renew the Trident weapons programme and press on with the manufacture of a new generation of nuclear submarines.

The United Kingdom is one of only two countries in Western Europe which hold nuclear weapons and I can see no logical or strategic reason why this should continue.

CND has estimated that the lifetime costs of Trident would be a massive £205 billion, while Crispin Blunt, the former Chairman of the influential Foreign Affairs Committee, told the House of Commons that these costs would be a still substantial £179 billion.

I find it especially unpardonable that many of those politicians wishing to spend such a ridiculous amount of money on Trident are the same people who have unleashed devastating cuts to our vital public services through austerity, which continue to be greatly under-funded.

Just think how much good £179,000,000,000 would do if it was instead spent on social housing, education, health, policing, job creation, community groups and so much more.