UK Nuclear weapons expansion is delusional and dangerous
Plans to expand the UK’s nuclear weapons stockpile are delusional and dangerous when the world already facing existential threats from a virus and climate breakdown, the Scottish Greens have said.
As part of overall increased ‘defence’ spending, the announcement by the Prime Minister today to increase nuclear warheads by more then 40% reverses 30 years of disarmament. This goes against the objectives of the Non-Proliferation Treaty, a historic international agreement to reduce nuclear weapons stockpiles of which the UK is a key signatory.
Scottish Greens external affairs spokesperson Ross Greer MSP said: “Reversing decades of disarmament by piling up weapons of mass obliteration is dangerous, serving only to demonstrate the UK Government’s delusion that we are still an imperial superpower.
“When we urgently need investment in a recovery from the pandemic and action to tackle the climate crisis, the decision to throw billions into these weapons is obscene. It’s increasingly clear that Scotland leaving the warmongering UK could be a huge step forward in international nuclear disarmament, forcing a major rethink of the UK’s Trident programme.
“The first thing an independent Scotland should do is ratify to the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, rendering the stockpile of nukes at Faslane illegal under our domestic law, just as they already are under international law.”
