Given that one nuclear missile can kill a million people or more, such awesome power imposes a heavy moral burden on the citizens of any nation that possesses it. Yet again, the maintenance of Britain’s nuclear deterrent, the submarine-borne Trident missile system, will not figure significantly in the general election campaign, as if there was no real debate to be had.
But there is. Pope Francis called for global nuclear disarmament in his speech in Nagasaki, the second target of atomic bombs in 1945. And the Scottish National Party has said it will make the removal of the Trident force from the Royal Naval base at Faslane, Scotland, a condition of offering support to a possible minority Labour government after the election. So it is on the political agenda, albeit as a side issue.
27 November 2019, The Tablet
Trident has to be debated
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