Compass has launched a new campaign designed to build a groundswell of support for decommissioning Britain’s Trident nuclear weapons.
Trident: Time to Move On was launched with an online petition last month to the incoming prime minister that calls for the UK to become “the first permanent member of the UN Security Council to give up all its nuclear weapons and transform the nuclear club from within”.
“Pinning our security on a nuclear deterrent entices others to do the same,” it says. “But in this new networked global arena, instead of protecting us, nuclear weapons make us a target for the disaffected.”
Hosting nuclear weapons, it says, “presents a daily threat to our people”, and “diverts resources and attention from tackling our most urgent security problems, including climate and environmental destruction”.
In an email to Compass supporters, Helena Kennedy QC said: “It is time to move on from nuclear weapons. It’s time to move on from an old world order of nations constantly squaring up to each other, comparing nuclear capabilities. Nuclear weapons don’t defend us or make the world safer – they make us a target and are a daily threat to all of us.
“Instead of investing in a deterrent that is old, expensive and dangerous, we should be tackling real security threats like climate destruction and investing in safe, economically advantageous, green jobs that offer a sustainable future for everyone. Let’s take the lead, face the future and transform the nuclear club from within. It’s time to move on.”
The campaign has already gathered a long list of supporters, from CND’s Bruce Kent to singer Damon Albarn and Nobel prize-winning physics professor Peter Higgs via novelists, TV presenters, trade unionists, academics and musicians.
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To sign the petition and read more about the campaign go to the Time to Move On website.
