Scrapping Trident: stars back call to ditch nuclear weapons
Frankie Boyle, Dame Vivienne Westwood and Massive Attack are among leading figures in music, the arts and science who are calling for the UK to scrap its nuclear deterrent.
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Both the Labour and Conservative Parties insisted last week that they would renew Britain’s Trident nuclear deterrent, a strategy described as a relic from the past in a letter published on Sunday.
The open letter, published in the Observer, suggests that Britain should become the first member of the UN security council to give up nuclear weapons.
Read more: Trident debate in numbers
Signatories include comedian Frankie Boyle, Mercury prizewinning band Young Fathers, the former president of the Royal Society, Sir Michael Atiyah, and lawyer and Labour peer Baroness Kennedy.
.@youngfathers resisting Trident renewal: “Take a look in the mirror”. https://t.co/ME0BQcSNNl Sign petition here! http://t.co/uJJUbJqdp3
— moveontrident (@moveontrident) April 11, 2015
They write: “The election campaign to date suggests that decommissioning Trident nuclear weapons is a dangerous, minority demand led by the SNP, the Greens and Plaid Cymru.
“Yet poll after poll reveals that it is indeed a majority popular demand throughout the UK. One poll recently revealed 81 per cent of 500 general election candidates are opposed to renewal.”
Read Jon Snow's blog: Hans Blix - Britain's Trident plans 'completely pointless'
Nobel prize winner Professor Peter Higgs, former Royal Society president Sir Michael Atiyah and US linguist Noam Chomsky also put their names to the letter.
Launched by political group Compass, the letter argued that hosting nuclear weapons “makes us a target for the disaffected”.
It added: “Any accident would lead to a humanitarian disaster. Having nuclear weapons diverts resources and attention from tackling our most urgent security problems, including climate and environmental destruction.”
Labour leader Ed Miliband reacted angrily last week after Conservative Defence Secretary Michael Fallon claimed that he would “stab the United Kingdom in the back” over the renewal of the Trident nuclear deterrent to secure a post-election deal with the Scottish National Party.
Watch Michael Crick’s report from Thursday 9 April:
Former Blue Peter presenter Konnie Huq, Mercury music prize winners Young Fathers and novelist Kamila Shamsie were also among the 70 signatories to the letter.