Categories: uncategorized
Date: 13 March 2007 14:12:55
Its good to see that there are still people in modern politics who have principles and are willing to stand up for them.
The Labour party, our current government, have had 2 resignations in the last 2 days. Yesterday Nigel Griffiths, the Deputy Leader of the House of Commons, announced his resignation from his post. Today Jim Devine, Parliamentary Secretary at the Department of Health, resigned his position.
Why?
Well the Labour leadership announced late last year that Britain would be renewing its nuclear arsenal. We will be building 3-4 submarines between now and 2020 and arming them with replacement missiles, at a cost of £20 billion. Unfortunately the government should still get through unscathed as the Conservatives, the main opposition party, have decided to back the renewal.
Very few people seem to be asking why we need to have a nuclear deterrent. Its not stopped countries such as Israel, South Africa, India and Pakistan from arming themselves. Iran and North Korea also want to develop them. Therefore the deterrent factor isn't really working, is it.
So are we really going to nuke these countries if they let them off? I wouldn't have thought so. They don't pose an immediate threat to the UK, though they do to Middle East stability and oil supplies.
Would the US and Russia standby with their, somewhat reduced, arsenals? Are they likely to begin replacing their existing weapons?
Its not that I'm 100% against nuclear weapons. I do believe that there is a limited deterence value to them but I still believe that the issue should be open to debate and free choice. Couldn't the £20 billion be wasted on something more appealing? After all that's what our government seem to be good at at present.
I'm always reminded of the Yes Minister episode where the minister discovers that we have them because the French have them. You can't have the French having them and not us!!!!
There was also another story going around that the navy has control because they are the "Senior" service. Without them why would we need a modern navy? Its not like they can project British power around the world anymore. Who's going to be afraid if a few bath tubs and rubber dinghys appear off their coast?