Yesterday I was part of a group of Scottish Church and political figures, along with a number of British nuclear researchers and campaigners visiting Aldermaston - Atomic Weapons Establishment site in Berkshire. The Morning Star carries a photo and article about this on their front page saying that we ‘swooped on Britain’s nuclear bomb factory’. It was actually a bit too hot to do any swooping and most of us were instructed by the police to wait a in fenced-off area of the main-gate car park.
Eventually, three were escorted through the gate to present a letter of protest about the activities going on therein and about proposed new developments towards replacing the current Trident nuclear weapons system. We then inspected different parts of the site, from the other side of the security fence, including the area where building is now under way for the new laser testing facility. A Greenpeace press release gives more information about the visit and the participants.
Later in the day we attended, in central London, a launch meeting of the report of the WMD Commission, chaired by Hans Blix, former UN weapons inspector. Hans Blix greeted us all and highlighted some of the key points from the Commission’s 60 recommendations. The full report (Weapons of Terror: Freeing the World of Nuclear, Biological and Chemical Arms) can be downloaded as a PDF file and a summary and commentary is available from the US-based ‘Civil Society Review of the WMD Commission’
If the energy and commitment, to prevent a replacement of Trident, from the Scottish Churches and political parties can be spread to other parts of the UK, the government will have to take a bit more notice.
