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The results of the UK general election on Thursday prove that the Scottish National Party's vocal opposition to the expensive replacement of the UK’s four nuclear-armed submarines, located in Scotland, is well backed by the British population campaigners have claimed.
The SNP, whose electoral campaign focused on the question of Trident nuclear weapons, won all but three of Scotland’s 59 seats.
‘The election results last night took many by surprise – but not least because Scotland, which has had nuclear weapons forced on it from Westminster for years, has announced its rejection of them so forcefully,” CND General Secretary Kate Hudson said.
In a few weeks, the new parliament is expected to hold the final vote on whether or not to spend £100bn (US$150bn) on the nuclear weapons at the beginning of 2016. They are currently housed in Scotland.
Many MPs from Labour, Liberal Democrats, the Green Party and the SDLP are expected to join the SNP in the opposition of the legislation.
Hudson told teleSUR that public opinion has significantly shifted against nuclear weapons over the past decade, partly because of the legal and moral questions associated with these weapons of mass destruction; but the US$150bn bill to spent in case of replacement was probably the most significant factor in explaining this popular hostility, at a time of deep and unpopular spending cuts.
The Scottish people are joined by millions all over the UK who are fed up with being told there’s no money for health, welfare and education, while plans are drawn up to squander £100bn on an obsolete weapons system,” affirmed Hudson.
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