Nuclear sense and nonsense

Letter sent to Morning Star on 7 April

 

I agreed with CND Cymru vice chair, Ray Davies's letter (Peace movement is slowly winning the argument," letters, 6 April) except for his mistaken assertion that the 1982 Labour Party conference voted for unilateral disarmament. It never did any such thing: rather, it voted for unilateral  nuclear disarmament. That word is very important, as without it, Labour would have been open to criticism that it did not see any need to defend the nation, a charge former Tory  Defence secretary Michael Hesletine always tried to falsely pin on Labour, and the peace movement more widely in the 1980s.

 

On the same day as Mr Davies' letter was published, Labour's Scottish leader, Jim Murphy, launched the Scottish Labour Manifesto in Neilston. He had ten major pledges ( http://www.scottishlabour.org.uk/blog/entry/jim-outlines-our-10-pledges-for-the-general-election) to impress the Scottish voters who, opinion polls consistently report, are planning to abandon Labour for the Scottish National Party (SNP) in droves at the General Election.

 

Despite his  3000 word address, Mr Murphy forgot to mention Labour's commitment to replace the Trident nuclear WMD system - including its submarines- using £100 billion of taxpayers' money.

 

Presumably, Mr Murphy did notice the big rally against Trident over last weekend in Glasgow ("Glasgow: Thousands turn out for mass protest against Trident" , April 6), including excellent speakers like Labour candidate Katy Clark,  even if he did not attend it . Unless Labour pays attention to the unpopularity of spending such a vast amount of the people's money on this obscenity  of a weapon of mass destruction, the voters will continue to hemorrhage to the SNP who sensibly - and with principle - pledge to get rid of it. Think again Labour, and you will be able to fund those ten pledges with money saved by canceling Trident renewal

 

And I write as an internationalist, not a nationalist.