Tuesday 3 April 2007

After the Trident vote...

Now the UK parliament have voted on Trident, where next? Those who were particularly involved in effort to engage the public and politicians and genuine debate on the issue will meet soon and no doubt developing strategies for further opposition to the decision to renew. CND, for instance, are encouraging people to write to their MPs to continue the conversation about the importance of pursuing multilateral disarmamant, amongst other things. And more than that, they say 'we will be working tirelessly to ensure that this dangerous, immoral decision is reversed at the earliest date.' Watch that space.

QPSW, on the Peace Exchange website, meanwhile writes: "Despite the disappointing outcome of the vote, this is not the end of this story: it will take years to build the new submarines and the argument for doing so is rusting away as inexorably as the current fleet. We will keep you informed of future Trident-related events and actions as they come up. In the meantime, you can still make use of the QPSW "Don't Replace Trident!" resources, and take action at Faslane naval base and Aldermaston Atomic Weapons Establishment."

Interesting issues arising with the ongoing Faslane 365 blockades. Local residents are objecting to the disruption to their lives by people blockading the main road outside the base, and have recently had their own protest event (see the article in The Scotsman). The Faslane 365 core team is encouraging blockaders to be aware of this and to bear it in mind when planning actions - for instance, taking into account school exams coming up etc. But the blockades continue, with both groups of people trying to do what they must do whilst not trampling on each others' toes unnecessarily.