Stop Trident nuclear weapons, demonstration in Scotland

This video from Scotland says about itself:

84 Years Young SNP Woman to Blockade Nuclear Weapon Base

20 March 2015

Isabelle has been campaigning for years for Scottish Independence and against nuclear weapons but never like this before. On her 84th birthday 13 April she will join the Bairns Not Bombs Scrap Trident blockade of the Trident base near Helensburgh in Scotland.

By Malcolm Burns in Scotland:

Glasgow city centre gathering calls for Bairns Not Bombs

Saturday 4th April 2015

THE campaign to scrap Britain’s Trident nuclear weapon system will be pushed to the centre of the general election campaign today as thousands rally in Glasgow.

SNP First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, Ayrshire Labour MP Katy Clark MP and Scottish Green leader Patrick Harvie MSP head a platform of speakers at the Bairns Not Bombs demonstration organised by the Scrap Trident Coalition.

The SNP has made it a “red line” condition for post-election support for a Labour government, and about three-quarters of Labour candidates have said they would vote against Trident renewal.

Scottish CND secretary Alan Mackinnon told the Morning Star that the election on May 7 is an opportunity to elect MPs who will commit to voting against a new generation of nuclear weapons.

“This demonstration will be a clear call from the people of Scotland that they no longer want to play host to Britain’s weapons of mass destruction,” he said.

“2016 will be the crunch year when the ‘main gate’ decision is taken on whether to go ahead with the new system.

“That’s why this election is so important.

“Over the next decade Trident will consume over a third of the UK defence procurement budget at a time when working people are facing savage austerity.

“The Trident system should be scrapped, not just removed from Scotland. It is dangerous, unaffordable and militarily useless in today’s multi-polar world.”

In a message of solidarity to the Scottish demonstrators, CND Cymru national secretary Jill Gough said: “Nuclear weapons should not be a party-political issue, they are a moral, an environmental and an economic issue.

“We in Wales call on everyone everywhere to vote Trident out, and to make sure that our representatives in London after May 7 are standing on the nuclear disarmament side of any ‘red lines’.”

Demonstrators will assemble from 10.30am in George Square, march into the city centre at 11am, returning for the rally at noon.

A vigil at Faslane nuclear base will follow on Wednesday April 8, and a there will be a day-long Bairns Not Bombs blockade of Faslane on Monday April 13.

PEACE campaigners urged police yesterday not to make arrests when thousands of protesters blockade Britain’s Trident nuclear submarine base on April 13. Organiser the Scrap Trident Coalition sent its request to Police Scotland, quoting a precedent set at Burghfield nuclear weapons factory in Berkshire on March 2. Protesters blockaded the factory for seven hours, but no arrests were made. “As an indiscriminate weapon of mass destruction the UK’s Trident breaches international humanitarian law,” a Scrap Trident spokesperson explained: here.

OVER 30 anti-nuclear activists were slapped in irons yesterday during a blockade of Britain’s “obscene” Trident nuclear base at Faslane. At least 34 people were arrested at the Scottish naval base for breaching the peace after lying in gateways and covering themselves in red paint. Workers arriving for their morning shifts were unable to get through the 150-strong protest that blocked the main site entrances from 7am to 1.30pm, being told to go home instead. Later in the day, 1,000 people demonstrated outside the Ministry of Defence in London, calling on would-be MPs to promise an end to Trident when it comes up for review in 2016. The Scrap Trident Coalition said the blockade was not only effective but also had a “relaxed, colourful and upbeat vibe”: here.

THE Tories were accused yesterday of seeking to drag the vital issue of Trident replacement down to the level of gutter politics. Defence Secretary Michael Fallon faced a backlash after he accused Labour leader Ed Miliband of planning to “stab the United Kingdom in the back” over the renewal of Britain’s nuclear weapons. Mr Fallon claimed that Labour would have to abandon any plans to renew the Trident fleet in order to secure the support of the Scottish National Party (SNP) in a hung parliament: here.

Royal Navy investigates Trident whistle-blower William McNeilly who claims nuclear programme is a ‘disaster waiting to happen’: here.