REPLACEMENT OF THE NUCLEAR DETERRENT
March 21, 2006 1:19 PM
Many people are contacting me regarding the possible replacement of the UK's nuclear deterrence system, Trident, at the moment and if I am honest short of re-inventing the wheel the Liberal Democrats have been forced to play a waiting game for the Government to reveal what scientists based at Aldermaston have been working on for the past few years.
Many people are concerned about how much a new deterrent will costs. Due to the current uncertainty surrounding the Government's plans for Trident replacement it is difficult to make any assumptions regarding the costs of a new nuclear deterrent without entering in to the realms of speculation.
Others worry that there will be no debate on possible nuclear deterrent replacements. My party colleagues and I have urged the Government to commit to a full public debate on this matter. When I recently asked the Secretary of State for Defence, John Reid MP, to state the Government's position on the future of the nuclear deterrent he responded by re-iterating his position of June 2005, that although a decision will need to be made on the future of the UK's nuclear deterrent during the course of this Parliament, the Government has yet to consider its position on the matter.
On the question of costs relating both to preparatory work and development of a nuclear deterrent replacement programme Dr Reid stands by his response to a Parliamentary Question in June 2005. He stated then that it is not possible to differentiate between the costs of work being done to support current deterrent systems and that which is being carried out for the development of future systems. Figures released by the Liberal Democrats indicate a replacement system could cost in excess of £76 billion.
At last year's General Election the Liberal Democrats' manifesto re-iterated the party's long-standing commitment to work for the elimination of nuclear weapons on a multi-lateral basis, whilst retaining the UK's current minimum nuclear deterrent until progress has been made to this end.
In the aftermath of last year's failure of both the Nuclear non-Proliferation Treaty Review conference and the UN world summit to make any meaningful progress on disarmament, we are continuing to press the Government to initiate arms reduction talks.
We believe it is vital a properly informed public debate about these questions takes place, leading to a vote in the House of Commons before any decision is made on the replacement of the deterrent. We continue to press for a White Paper to be published in order to facilitate such a debate.
Amongst the many issues to consider will be an assessment of the possible strategic security context in twenty years time, the deterrence capability of any new system, the options for different systems, the costs involved and the alternative uses of the resources which would be required.
Within Parliament, the defence select committee will shortly be publishing its detailed inquiry in to this issue. The Liberal Democrats are embarking on a detailed policy consultation exercise which will lead up to and inform a conference debate in due course.
For my part, I am already actively participating in the national debate on the replacement of Trident. I will continue to do so.
What would you like to do next?
-
Subscribe for updates
Follow the party's activity on...
- Twitter:
- Liberal Democrats
- Facebook:
- Liberal Democrats
- YouTube:
- Liberal Democrats