My weekly Comment column in the daily Plymouth Herald (3.6.25), responding to Starmer’s outrageous and dangerous Strategic Defence Review, representing a drive towards nuclear war. The Idiot! A colossal waste of money in pursuit of personal aggrandisement and ultra-nationalist status at the expense of all emotional security and economic progress. The scale of my anger cannot be printed. Join me on Saturday 7th to protest, shout and scream, rage at the injustice. Welfare not Warfare! Nurses not Nukes! Books not Bombs! 12 noon at the Guildhall Square, Armada Way, Plymouth.

[in the event some 100 dedicated anti-nuclear activists joined the protests despite torrential rain. It was a start, a reconvening of those most alert to the risk of nuclear proliferation and war. Thank you each and every one].

Cash found for War instead of Welfare

What will you feel, say and do on the morning you wake-up to hear that a nuclear bomb has been exploded upon a population? You see, the idea that it’s the end of everything is not quite correct. In the ensuing nuclear war, the majority of the human race will die over prolonged periods of time in pain, homelessness and famine. Nuclear war bears no comparison to conventional warfare, the radioactive fallout keeps on killing, the destruction of infrastructure total.
The UK Government’s Strategic Defence Review has committed an additional £15 billion to nuclear weapons. The British tax-payer is buying F-32A jets to carry air-launched missiles carrying nuclear warheads, and adding a new fleet of nine nuclear “attack” submarines to the four new Dreadnought super-Subs armed with first-use Trident nuclear warheads.
We are in a “pre-War situation”, exclaimed Defence Minister Healey.
Britain will build 6 new munitions factories costing an extra £6billion over the next 5 years. 7,000 long-range weapons are to be built in the UK – a massive arsenal. Clearly the next war will be a nuclear war.
UK troops are part of a wider European military strategy and the entire nuclear weapons system based here will be reliant upon the provisions and infrastructure of the United States of America.
The Trident nuclear weapons system is not independent, always having been reliant upon and governed by the USA. Now it is announced that British-based US fighter jets will carry nuclear bombs, the “air delivery system” carrying “tactical nuclear weapons”. The proposition is that nuclear weapons can be used without mutually assured destruction. It is a nonsense.
The wars in Ukraine, Sudan and Palestine have proved that the classic “Rules of Engagement”, even if they used to be adhered to, don’t apply anymore. Military leaders are clear that they will do whatever they want to civilian targets and use weapons of mass destruction despite any international laws, rules of warfare or moral considerations. Genocide is normalised. Attack-first is the order of the day on all sides.
Public attitudes are being reset. Recruitment and retention in the armed forces is crucial, especially when most young people don’t want to fight and die. The proposed volunteer “Dad’s Army” is designed to demand allegiance. A new ideological offensive of militarisation coupled with patriotism (defined more by hate-filled xenophobia than love of country) is being wheeled-out.
Tax money is plentiful for military rearmament but not hospitals and schools. We are seeing tens-of-thousands of jobs being lost in health, education and social care, far more jobs lost than will be created by the arms industry.
Governments always find tax cash for weapons but not for welfare. It would cost £1.5 bn to reverse the Winter Fuel Allowance to pay £300a year to 10million pensioners, £3.5 billion to reverse the 2-child benefit cap safeguarding a third child with £66 per week, and £5 billion to reverse the draconian cuts to benefits for people with disabilities.
That money would be available now if they scrapped the £13 billion per year being spent on Trident nuclear weapons of mass destruction.
The NATO summit next month will recommend 3.5% of GDP to be spent on military resources and another 1.5% on civil protection and security. That 5% of GDP represents even more Austerity, cuts to welfare services and social infrastructure – the opposite of a safe and secure population.
We must protest against this drive to war – a waste of money, humanity and the environment. Demand the end of nuclear weapons – Welfare not Warfare! Saturday 7th June, 12 noon at Plymouth’s Guildhall Square. Join us! CNDUK.org