Britain to unveil plans to replace aging nuclear missile system
Pastor Dale Morgan
Britain to unveil plans to replace aging nuclear missile system*
LONDON, Nov 23 (AFP) Nov 23, 2006
Britain is to publish proposals by the end of the year on how to replace
its ageing nuclear deterrent Trident missiles, Prime Minister Tony Blair
told lawmakers Monday.
Blair confirmed a question from the leader of the smaller opposition
Liberal Democrats Menzies Campbell that the government's position on
whether to maintain the Trident missile system would be set out by the
turn of the year.
He also said he was "sure" lawmakers would get a chance to vote on the
issue.
"I believe it is important that we maintain the independent nuclear
deterrent," he told Campbell during the weekly "prime minister's
questions" in the lower chamber House of Commons.
The issue of whether to scrap Trident -- which will become obsolete with
the four Vanguard class submarines that carry them in the mid-2020s --
is a deeply divisive issue among Blair's governing Labour Party.
Scrapping nuclear weapons -- and also nuclear power -- was a totemic
issue for the left-wing party in the 1980s but the policy was dropped
before the 1997 general election, when Blair's revamped centre-left "New
Labour" was elected.
Instead, its manifesto pledged to retain Trident.
Blair's likely successor, finance minister Gordon Brown, has previously
said he, too, is in favour of keeping Britain's nuclear deterrent.
But a number of senior ministers, including Foreign Secretary Margaret
Beckett, reportedly have concerns about it.
Anti-nuclear campaigners are currently lobbying hard against any
replacement, including via an online petition on the prime minister's
own website.
By Wednesday, there had been more than 2,000 signatories supporting the
motion: "We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to champion the
Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, by not replacing the Trident nuclear
weapons system."