PROTESTS calling for all foreign military bases to be closed were held in Britain and around the world on Saturday.

Near Harrogate, demonstrators from the Menwith Hill Accountability Campaign took part in the global day of action, which was co-ordinated by the US-based group World Beyond War. 

RAF Menwith Hill is a joint US-British signals intelligence and surveillance base run by a base commander who, the campaigners warn, is “an unnamed American civilian who is not answerable to any UK authority.”

World Beyond War says that foreign military bases cause a raft of problems including raised tensions in surrounding nations, facilitate war by allowing weapons and troops to be quickly and secretly moved around the world, encourage militarism and provoke terrorism, endangering host countries by becoming targets for action from adversaries.

Bases could also enable nuclear weapons to be used without reference to the host government, as in the case of the US airbase at Lakenheath in Suffolk.