The Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) welcomes today’s report from the House of Commons Scottish Affairs Committee on the implications of Scottish independence for Trident.
The Committee calls for the UK and Scottish governments to “establish the consequences of the removal of Trident… as soon as is practical”. This is in stark contrast to the Ministry of Defence statement just this week that it is “confident that the people of Scotland will choose to remain part of the United Kingdom, and we are not making plans for Scottish independence.”
CND’s General Secretary Kate Hudson stated:
“The Committee suggests two options for Trident, post-independence. Either Trident is removed quickly and safely, or the Scottish government allows it to remain on the Clyde for 20 years or more while Westminster tries to work out what to do with it.”
“The first option is the only realistic route to take. Keeping Trident in Scotland is clearly untenable as the Scottish public is overwhelmingly opposed to Trident. But this raises an even bigger question. Not only is public opinion south of the border similarly opposed to wasting billions on nuclear weapons, but there is nowhere for Trident to be relocated to.”
“The government must review Trident in the light of the Scottish independence question – but, more than that, it must fundamentally review Britain’s possession of nuclear weapons full stop.”
The Committee’s report draws heavily on two CND/Scottish CND publications – Disarming Trident and Trident: Nowhere to Go – which discuss the timeframe for disarmament and the prospects of relocation to another site in the UK respectively. These reports can be downloaded here.