Thursday, December 07, 2006
The Trident debate - have your say
Compass is a left wing think tank and it has launched a consulatation process on the replacement of Trident. As a local party we are keen to get involved in the debate, and hope that you may be as well. Please feel free to leave comments as well at the bottom of this article.
Compass believes it to be absolutely crucial that there is a full and rigorous public debate. As well as the survey we've also sought to set out the arguments, both for and against in a balanced way to inform those taking part in our consultation.Trident is Britain’s only nuclear weapons system and constitutes the UK’s nuclear deterrent. Despite the long life span of the Trident system, the lengthy procurement process for replacing or renewing the system means decisions need to be taken imminently for any replacement system to be ready when Trident’s working life ends in 2024.
The Labour Party manifesto for the May 2005 General Election stated that “we are committed to retaining the independent nuclear deterrent”. Since the election, the Prime Minister, the Chancellor of the Exchequer and other ministers have reiterated that position, advocating that nuclear weapons remain an important part of the country’s force balance despite the fact that threats to the UK have evolved. The Government will publish a white paper detailing its preferred option and starting off a 3 month consultation period in December. There is expected to be a vote in the House of Commons in early 2007 on whether Britain’s nuclear weapons system should be replaced. We want to know what you think on this important issue!
Click on this link http://www.compassonline.org.uk/news_comments.asp?n=344 for all the information we think you need to make an informed decision.
The consultation survey can be found at this link http://www.compassonline.org.uk/surveys/december_2006.asp it will take you less than 3 minutes to complete.
Once you've filled in the consultation you may also make comments and view other people's comments on this important debate, we encourage you to leave comments.
We'd like to get at least 1000 responses to our survey, the consultation will remain live until Monday 8 January 2007, after which we will publicise the results. The results will help to inform our decision as to whether or not to carry out any further campaigning work around this important issue.
The Labour Party manifesto for the May 2005 General Election stated that “we are committed to retaining the independent nuclear deterrent”. Since the election, the Prime Minister, the Chancellor of the Exchequer and other ministers have reiterated that position, advocating that nuclear weapons remain an important part of the country’s force balance despite the fact that threats to the UK have evolved. The Government will publish a white paper detailing its preferred option and starting off a 3 month consultation period in December. There is expected to be a vote in the House of Commons in early 2007 on whether Britain’s nuclear weapons system should be replaced. We want to know what you think on this important issue!
Click on this link http://www.compassonline.org.uk/news_comments.asp?n=344 for all the information we think you need to make an informed decision.
The consultation survey can be found at this link http://www.compassonline.org.uk/surveys/december_2006.asp it will take you less than 3 minutes to complete.
Once you've filled in the consultation you may also make comments and view other people's comments on this important debate, we encourage you to leave comments.
We'd like to get at least 1000 responses to our survey, the consultation will remain live until Monday 8 January 2007, after which we will publicise the results. The results will help to inform our decision as to whether or not to carry out any further campaigning work around this important issue.
# posted by Labour : Thursday, December 07, 2006
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I hear Compass has already received over 700 responses in only two days. Bonkers. People clearly wanna talk about this thing.
# posted by 
: 5:31 PM
: 5:31 PM
Our government is committed by Non-proliferation Treaty to undertake in good faith disarmament of nuclear weapons - those who have not signed to those treaties are not so bound. So instead of spending vast sums of money on new editions of them we should be exploring ways to diminish our Weapons of Mass Destruction and thus give a lead to the whole world on it (including those who have not signed the Treaty) and encourage them not to nuclear arm, and show we will keep to our unequivocal committment and that we set ourselves again anarchy in international affairs. As a local party we could campaign among Maidstone people to show how we could spend the enormous amounts of money on social welfare both here and abroad where it is so desperately needed. We should reiterate our trust in the United Nations and progress all such policies through that organisation. Les Turner
# posted by : 11:27 PM
: 11:27 PM<< Home
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