Protests against government plans to replace Trident, Britain’s nuclear weapons system, are set to take place across the UK over the weekend and Monday.
Protests in London, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Cardiff, Bristol, Nottingham and a number of other locations are timed to coincide with MPs debating a government motion on Trident replacement.
Campaigners say the £205 billion replacement scheme is a cold war relic and doesn’t address 21st century security threats.
Representatives from CND will hand in over 40,000 signatures collected for a ‘Stop Trident’ petition to the Ministry of Defence at 12 noon Monday. And rally will take place outside Parliament from 6pm as MPs debate Trident inside Parliament. MPs opposing the government motion are expected to address the rally.
Kate Hudson, CND general secretary, said:
“This is a once in a generation opportunity to break with this massively expensive yet redundant old technology and instead spend Britain’s valuable resources on meeting the security challenges we face today, like terrorism and climate change.
“We need our government and parliament to show the kind of vision and wisdom necessary in our rapidly changing political environment: to have the courage to abandon the totems of a bygone age and vote down these militarily useless weapons of destruction.”