Coming up on four years as CND’s Press & Communications Officer, 2025 seems to have been the busiest one for me yet and it’s not quite over! As the link between CND and the media, my role involves developing relationships with journalists and getting our messaging out there for readers and viewers.
Some big stories that I’ve worked on this year included an exclusive in The Mirror newspaper about Ministry of Defence documents that were declassified thanks to CND lawyers. These unveiled a secret waiver that the British government gave US troops in Britain, exempting their bases from nuclear safety regulations. I also secured coverage of our comments opposing Britain’s expansion of its nuclear weapons programme by purchasing nuclear-capable F-35 fighter jets; and of our response to the landing of special nuclear flights from the US to RAF Lakenheath, which all but confirms that US nuclear weapons have arrived in Britain for the first time since 2008.
I’ve also worked with local groups to boost coverage in local media. CND’s nuclear bases tour, which included protests at the BAE shipyard in Barrow and the Devonport dockyard in Plymouth all received good local media interest. This year also marked the 80th anniversary of the criminal atomics bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, with CND’s General Secretary Sophie Bolt appearing on Sky News, and CND Vice-Presidents Caroline Lucas and Jeremy Corbyn writing opinion pieces for The Independent and Tribune.
With the world as dangerous as it is at the moment, I’m sure I will be as busy as ever in the coming weeks and months making sure our anti-nuclear campaigning continues to feature in the news.
- To contact Pádraig, email pressoffice@cnduk.org or phone the office on 020 7700 2393.