British scientists, musicians against nuclear weapons

This video from Britain says about itself:

British Trident System Replacement Impractical and Expensive: Review

29 May 2013

This is the file video of the first test launch of unarmed UGM-133 Trident II D5 SLBM from a Vanguard-class Nuclear powered Ballistic missile submarine.

The suggested alternatives for the Trident System will either be impractical or highly expensive, according to the review instigated by the Lib Dems, as reported by Financial Times.

Trident itself is an operational system of four Vanguard-class submarines armed with Trident II D-5 ballistic missiles, able to deliver thermonuclear warheads from multiple independent re-entry vehicles. It is the most expensive and the most powerful capability of the British military forces.

A final decision on whether to build a new fleet of Vanguard submarines, which carry ballistic missiles equipped with nuclear warheads, has been pushed back until after the next election in 2015 amid disagreements within the coalition.

From weekly The Observer in Britain:

Musicians and scientists join call to scrap Trident nuclear deterrent

Signatories of letter to Observer, including Young Fathers, Massive Attack and Sir Michael Atiyah, say majority of voters want UK to abandon nuclear arms

Daniel Boffey, policy editor

Saturday 11 April 2015 22.00 BST

Decommissioning Trident nuclear weapons would be popular with voters and supported by a majority of candidates standing in the general election, luminaries from music, the arts and the legal world have claimed.

Despite the two main parties’ insistence last week that they would both renew Britain’s nuclear deterrent, the strategy is described as a relic from the past in a letter published in the Observer.

Among the signatories to the open letter – which suggests that Britain should become the first member of the UN security council to give up nuclear weapons – are 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. 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% of 500 general election candidates are opposed to renewal.”

Last week Labour furiously denied claims by defence secretary Michael Fallon that Ed Miliband was prepared to “stab Britain in the back”, as it was suggested he had done to his brother David during the 2010 leadership election.

It was claimed that Labour would be willing to abandon Trident to win support from the SNP in the event of a hung parliament. Following the dispute, both the Tories and Labour committed to replace the UK’s fleet of Vanguard-class submarines, which carry the missiles, and maintain “continuous at-sea deterrence” – that is, always having one nuclear-armed vessel on patrol.

However, signatories to the letter, who also include the band Massive Attack, TV presenter Konnie Huq and award-winning novelist Kamila Shamsie, say that nuclear weapons make Britain a target for the disaffected while diverting resources away from “human and social needs”. They write: “We are spending limited resources on expensive illusions that keep us in thrall to the past. Why don’t we switch the funds to safe, economically advantageous green jobs that offer a sustainable, prosperous future?

“Britain should use its capacity for innovation by responding to real human and social needs … Continuing to invest in nuclear weapons is actively depleting military and other effective defences we might need in the 21st century. We should invest military spending on conflict prevention. By moving on from Trident we can more effectively serve the needs and the potential of our country and a changing world.”