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Bruce Kent debates nuclear weapons with Sir Malcolm Rifkind


Sir Malcolm Rifkind with Bruce Kent

Sir Malcolm Rifkind with Bruce Kent

Bruce Kent launched his forthcoming ‘Scrap Trident Tour’ last night with a lively debate in London on the future of the UK’s nuclear weapons programme with Sir Malcolm Rifkind MP. The meeting, chaired by Pat Gaffney, General Secretary of Pax Christi, was organised by the Religious of the Assumption, in collaboration with Pax Christi UK and CND. Around 60 people attended and ensured lively engagement with the two speakers.

Sir Malcolm Rifkind, a former Secretary of State for Defence and former Foreign Secretary, said he would like to see an end to nuclear weapons but he did not favour unilateral nuclear disarmament. “I have no difficulty about seeking disarmament as long as it is multilateral” he said, meaning that all nuclear states should disarm, not just Britain. He felt the threat of nuclear weapons prevented the Cold War becoming a “hot war” and they still act as a deterrence to countries like India and Pakistan which have stepped away from all-out war, “perhaps because both countries have nuclear weapons”. He felt it significant that the number of nuclear weapons globally has reduced from around 60,000 to around 20,000, although he acknowledged that this number still has considerable destructive power. 95 percent are held by the United States and Russia. “The argument is not about what is ethical and unethical, but how we keep the global peace” he concluded.

Bruce Kent, a former General Secretary of CND and a vice-president of Pax Christi, took the view that to spend around £100 billion on replacing Trident, Britain’s nuclear weapons system, “will increase our military insecurity”. He felt spending on Trident is “a willingness to commit mass murder” and “takes money away from addressing the real security threats Britain faces such as climate change”. He told of near misses regarding nuclear accidents, reminding that the Catholic Church has condemned nuclear weapons. “In November 2006 the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales called for Britain’s nuclear weapons to be decommissioned” he said; “in fact, the Christian churches are solidly against the renewal of Trident and I am proud of that”. Kent lamented that “the nuclear powers have no intention whatever of abolishing nuclear weapons, despite their rhetoric”.

Throughout April, Bruce Kent’s ‘Scrap Trident Tour’ will see him speaking on the issue in various UK cities, including Southampton, Bristol and Preston. Pax Christi is urging support of a lobby of Parliament concerning Trident on 11 June, hoping that Trident is an important issue for voters in the leadup to next year’s General Election.

For details of Bruce Kent’s tour see: www.cnduk.org/index.php?option=com_k2&view=item&id=1857

For more information on Pax Christi’s work and events see: www.paxchristi.org.uk

For the text of Bruce Kent's speech see: www.indcatholicnews.com/news.php?viewStory=24471

 

 

 

 

  

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