YANA PETTICREW explains what’s behind the strike and how the entire sector rests on super-exploiting an unorganised workforce
We urgently need disarmament, not a drift towards nuclear war
BILL KIDD MSP says increasing Britain’s nuclear arsenal at this time is dangerous and expensive folly
ROGER McKENZIE asks whether the US’s shift to targeting everyone at once will instil greater co-operation among rising powers
ANSELM ELDERGILL examines the government’s proposals to further limit the right of citizens to trial by jury
As we mark the anniversaries of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings, JOHN WIGHT reflects on the enormity of the US decision to drop the atom bombs
DIANE ABBOTT explodes the anti-migrant myths perpetrated by cynical politicians and an irresponsible mass media
WITH news that US President Donald Trump has ordered the deployment of nuclear-capable submarines to the “appropriate regions” — AKA within striking distance of Russia — in response to similar sabre-rattling from Russia’s former president Dmitri Medvedev, who suggested that Russia could carry out nuclear strikes as tensions over Ukraine are ratcheted up, the time to speak out over insane nuclear posturing has never been more crucial.
I regularly speak out in both the Scottish Parliament and at the United Nations in my capacity as global vice-president of the organisation Parliamentarians for Nuclear Non-Proliferation and Disarmament.
The Scottish Parliament and indeed the Scottish government have time and again stated their opposition to nuclear weapons through motions and debate, not just those situated here.
My most recent parliamentary motion, which gained overwhelming cross-party support, noted that this July marked the 80th anniversary of the first nuclear explosion in New Mexico, leading the scientist behind the development of the bomb, Robert Oppenheimer, to quote the Hindu holy text saying: “Now I am become death, the destroyer of worlds.”
Three weeks later the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki resulting in an estimated death toll of between 150,000 and 246,000 by the end of 1945.
If we are to avoid history repeating itself, we must act now, we must fulfil our legal and moral obligations under international treaties, which call for the UK to take concrete action towards a nuclear free world.
Unfortunately, the action the UK government is taking puts us on a path to more nuclear weapons, more uncertainty, and more danger of nuclear war.
The UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer wants to build more nuclear-capable submarines and buy American F35s capable of unleashing a nuclear strike capability.
Not discounting the moral argument, the proposed submarines will cost over £40 billion alone, and this at a time when people are still struggling with a cost-of-living crisis that has only got worse under this so-called Labour government.
It is time to end this madness, it is time to stand up, to speak out and call for what is right.
And I for one will continue to do so.
Bill Kidd is Scottish National Party MSP for Glasgow Anniesland.
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I was honoured to play my part as a politician in the international cause of peace at the United Nations this year — but the body is fundamentally undermined by the main nuclear powers and their veto, writes BILL KIDD MSP
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