WHEN it was reported in The Ferret that the MOD had authorised a 50-fold increase in the discharge of radioactive material into the Gareloch, I was a little concerned that this might weaken our resolve to maintain a robust defence policy with a minimum credible deterrent – after all, the separatists will seize every opportunity to manufacture a grievance.
I am therefore relieved to see that the British government has decided to increase the number of warheads we have from 180 to 260. This modest proposal – a mere 40% increase – is a small price to pay to maintain our international status and a place at the top table of the Big Boys’ Club. And what difference does a few thousand extra Hiroshimas make when we are talking about omnicide? In humanity’s terminal nuclear spasm, what does it matter?
READ MORE: A nuclear weapons stockpile will not protect us from modern global threats
To be serious, I am dumbstruck at the sheer stupidity of this latest cunning plan of the British state. The rest of the world wants the abolition of nuclear weapons and supports the TPNW (Treaty for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons) agreed in January of this year at the UN by 122 states. They know that either we have a future without nuclear weapons, or we have no future at all, and it’s The End for us all.
The General Secretary of the UN has given his backing to the TPNW, the Pope has pleaded with us all to support it, and the Dalai Lama has added his voice – but in vain. This lunatic escalation is the British response to humanity’s pleading. The Doomsday clock stands closer to midnight than ever before, but we plunge ever onwards into the valley of nuclear death.
This will mean even more convoys trundling along our roads carrying hydrogen bombs past our cities, and an increase in the inevitable accidents with the possible release of radioactive material throughout the Central Belt of Scotland.
READ MORE: Boris Johnson under fire for stockpiling nuclear warheads
While this charade of machismo is being played out, our leaders vie with each other in expressing their willingness “to press the button” as if it were some sort of sort of game, and human life were not at stake.
I can only ask with incredulity: do these people actually know what they are doing? And do they really believe it is somehow less wicked being second to murder a million people than being first?
And I fall silent in a mute despairing prayer. God help us all.
Brian Quail
Glasgow
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