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Bruce Kent's Scrap Trident Tour


Throughout April and May, Bruce Kent, Vice Chair of Pax Christi, will be hitting the road on behalf of CND, spreading the Scrap Trident message across England. He’s working with a range of different organisations to highlight the wasteful spending on Trident when so much investment is needed to eradicate poverty, boost people-friendly development and make our world a safer and more peaceful place to live. You can help out by asking your MP to sign EDM 96.

In an open letter Bruce explains:

Dear Friends


You may like to hear directly from me about what I am hoping for from CND’s national Scrap Trident Tour.

It seems to me that we, as a country, are towards replacing – at vast expense – ‘our’ present Trident submarines and their murderous missiles and warheads with a new generation, planned to last for another 30 years.

Despite majority public opinion against, there is no clearly articulated political opposition to replacement, except from CND and other disarmament groups. So the Government is just attempting to go ahead with its project through a series of small steps – all of which will make it very difficult, if not impossible, to say NO when a vote comes in 2016.

Yet many many groups and organisations strongly oppose the cuts that will make humanitarian work of all sorts so much more difficult. We are supposed to ‘be in this together’. We are not. The cuts will hit the poorest hardest.

But the connection between the £100 billion to be spent on Trident and these savage cuts is not being made even by charities and NGOs that work in hardest-hit sectors. Nor is any link being made with our obligation, as a country, to negotiate the elimination of all nuclear weapons. If we replace Trident, in any shape or form, other countries will take the message from us that we think nuclear weapons improve our security. It’s an open invitation to get their own. It’s hypocrisy to say we can have them but they can’t.

I want, through this Tour, to help to make the connection. I hope the petition will go around the country and not only to the places on the Tour. I want Labour Party ‘top brass’ to realise that getting rid of Trident can be here – as well as in Scotland – a vote winner. I want anti-poverty NGOs of all sorts to join us in opposing this disgraceful squandering of public money which has everything to do with national pride and nothing to do with national security. Nuclear weapons are no answer to any threats we actually face.

I hope that in the places I will visit there will be opportunity for outdoor speaking and petition signing. Opportunity to meet local opinion formers and the media. Perhaps a visit to a sixth form college: plenty of advance publicity; an exhibition in a library; a church gathering or trade union meeting; an indoor meeting at which there will be lots of time for questions and forward planning. The possibilities are endless.

I also hope that others will plan their own No to Trident campaigns this spring or perhaps at some other time this year. In this campaign at least we can be ‘all in this together’.

Get active in any way you can. Greetings

Bruce Kent

Look out for Bruce in your local area - list of tour dates below.

1st April: AWE Aldermaston, Berkshire - launch of the tour!
2nd April: Bristol
3rd April: Tavistock & Exeter
4th April: Wells, Somerset
5th April: Reading
8th April: Bedford
9th April: Stoke-on-Trent
10th April: Bradford & Leeds
11th April: Leeds & York
13th April: Bath
16th April: Nottingham
17th April: Leicester
18th April: Derby
20th April: Peterborough
23rd April: Birkenhead & Liverpool
24th April: St Helens & Manchester
25th April: Sheffield & Doncaster
26th April: Brentwood, Essex
27th April: Norwich
29th April: Reigate & Redhill, Surrey
30th April: Kingston-upon-Thames
And a couple in May:
6th May: Chesterfield
20th May: Kingsbridge, Devon

For more information see: www.cnduk.org/campaigns/no-to-trident/scrap-trident-tour

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