On a visit to Scotland, the home of UK nuclear weapons, the British Prime Minister, David Cameron said, “We cannot be sure on issues of nuclear proliferation, and to me having that nuclear deterrent is quite simply the best insurance policy that you can have, that you will never be subject to nuclear blackmail.” Pressenza publishes the response by the UK Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament.
David Cameron’s comments on Trident today are ‘promoting a logic of proliferation’ the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament has said. Despite the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty preparatory committee convening in just two weeks’ time, David Cameron is backing Britain’s nuclear rearmament, rather than international disarmament efforts. He said ‘a world without nuclear weapons is a fine ideal…’ but then followed it up with: ‘I am determined that we will maintain [nuclear weapons] for generations to come.’
CND General Secretary, Kate Hudson stated:
‘Cameron is using the spectre of a nuclear-armed North Korea as a justification for British nuclear rearmament. Any further development of nuclear weapons, by any state, is alarming, including by Britain. It is vital that the international community moves to deal with the problem of nuclear weapons once and for all.’
‘But this cannot be done by saying that we and a select group can have nuclear weapons – and engage in aggressive military actions around the world – and that others can’t. North Korea withdrew from the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty when President Bush named it as part of the Axis of Evil, claiming that it needed its own nuclear deterrent to protect it from US attack, having seen what happened to Iraq.’
‘This is exactly the same logic as Cameron’s. If we say that replacing Trident is vital to protect us, for our national security – other states will come to the same conclusion. And that’s the logic David Cameron is promoting: a logic of proliferation.’
‘The result of David Cameron’s drive to replace Trident will not just be a nuclear North Korea – but many more nuclear armed states.’
