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Campaigners slam pro-nuke Tories’ blindness to the changing world

ATOMIC weapons campaigners yesterday condemned the blindness of the pro-Trident Tory government to the dangers of “a changing world.”

The Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND), which is holding a national demonstration against Trident in London this Saturday, warned that the £160 billion atomic weapons programme would actually make Britain less safe.

Over 30 MPs joined CND chair Kate Hudson in Parliament to show their opposition to the Tories’ renewal of the Trident programme.

“They are sticking with the same policy they’ve had for decades, without any thought about a changing world. The security threats are different,” she said.

“What Labour is doing is the more sensible and necessary thing you could possibly do — actually have a discussion about whether or not Britain needs nuclear weapons before we go ahead and replace them.”

Labour leader and longtime anti-nuclear campaigner Jeremy Corbyn is expected to attend Saturday’s march alongside the leaders of the SNP, Plaid Cymru and the Green Party.

“I think this demonstration will be different,” Green Brighton Pavilion MP Caroline Lucas told the Star.

“It’s the first time we’ve had a leader of the Labour Party, for example, supporting this kind of initiative for a very long time.

“I think the imminence of the vote in Parliament gives it an extra importance and so I think that people are going to be very mindful that a decision will be made very soon.

“Of course, this whole debate is taking place against the backdrop of austerity and I think that perhaps people who haven’t even thought of Trident and nuclear weapons before will suddenly start to question why we are spending upwards to £160bn over the next 30 years on a weapon that we are being told we will never use and which to my mind is actually going to make us less safe, not more.”

A parliamentary vote on the replacement of Trident’s nuclear-armed submarines is due later this year.

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