Stephen Hawking, other prominent Britons, campaign against Blair’s Trident nuclear arms plans

From The Independent in Britain:

Not in Our Name: Bid to Stop Trident

By Colin Brown

Thursday 15 February 2007

Leading figures from politics, religion, the arts and the military launch campaign against Trident.

A powerful coalition of 100 scientists, lawyers, church leaders, actors, writers and MPs is today demanding a halt to the rush by Tony Blair towards a replacement for Britain’s Trident nuclear weapon system.

Stephen Hawking, the astrophysicist, is among the prominent figures fronting the campaign, which will strengthen growing demands in Parliament for the vote on the replacement of the nuclear weapons system to be delayed until a full debate on the options has taken place.

The Archbishop of Canterbury, the Right Rev Rowan Williams, the author Zadie Smith, the actress Emma Thompson, the fashion designer Vivienne Westwood [see also here] and the architect Richard Rogers have also signed a statement objecting to a hasty decision.

They question the wisdom of rushing into the replacement of the Trident system with a Cold War-style generation of submarine-launched nuclear missiles at a cost of £65bn over its 30 years of service, while the most serious threat is now posed by terror groups that cannot be deterred by nuclear weapons.

The presence of Professor Hawking’s name in the list will add weight to the voices raised against the Government’s drive for a replacement for Trident.

It is the first time he has publicly attacked the haste with which the cabinet decision was taken in favour of replacing the nuclear weapon in December.

His previous political intervention came in 2004 when the author of A Brief History of Time attacked the loss of 100,000 lives in Iraq as a ” war crime”.

The estimates were 100,000 then, over 600,000 dead in Iraq now.

Demonstration on 24 February in London against Iraq war and Trident: see here.

US students against Iraq war: here.

US-British nuclear relationship: here.

And here.