A former Chief of the Defence Staff has said Britain should hold on to its nuclear deterrent in order to maintain peace in the world, writes Christopher Lamb.
Lord Guthrie of Craigiebank told a meeting of the Catholic Union that Britain should retain its Trident nuclear weapons programme because of unknown threats in the future.
“We should hang on to our nuclear deterrent, it has kept the peace,” he said during a question and answer session after delivering the Craigmyle Memorial Lecture on Monday at Notre Dame University, in central London. “It is there to keep the peace and not bomb people. Once you let it go you’ll never get it back.”
He went on: “We are very bad at talking about the future as far as threats are concerned,” adding that “problems suddenly arise”. While he did not expect to see “a resurgent Russia” from the Cold War era, he said the deterrent was “a good thing to have”.
Lord Guthrie, who was Chief of the Defence Staff from 1997 to 2001, currently sits on a cross-party commission looking into UK nuclear weapons policy and the issue of Trident renewal. The commission was established by the British American Security Information Council, an independent forum for dialogue.
He said that Britain giving up its nuclear weapons would not lead to others following suit. “We may pride ourselves on being good but it won’t help,” he explained.
A number of Catholics have opposed the renewal of Trident and called for nuclear disarmament. In a statement, the National Justice and Peace Network said: “The nature of the threats against this country today cannot be countered by the use of or threat of use of nuclear weapons”, adding that the weapons were “intrinsically immoral”.
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