I must be a glutton for punishment, going to two hustings in a week; this one was organised by CND. Four candidates attended; I still haven’t seen the Conservative or BNP candidates. It was much the same format; each candidate gave a short opening speech. The Liberal Democrat position is that they are not in favour of replacing Trident, but in favour of some nuclear deterrence. The SNP are against Trident and would get rid of nuclear weapons immediately. The Trade Union and Socialist Party would scrap Trident and all nuclear weapons too. Likewise the Greens.
The prize for the most unusual speech goes to the Green candidate who went out of his way to praise the absent Labour candidate. Apparently she put a message on some website stating her opposition to Trident. A member of the audience pointed out that she votes according to her party line, which is in favour of Trident, so that was confusing.
Yours truly plucked up the courage to ask a question. “In the last few years we have seen small defenceless countries being bullied and invaded by nuclear powers, so don’t you think we need some deterrence?”
The SNP man replied that deterrence was a thing of the past. The Green man likened it to giving guns to the elderly to defend themselves against knife carrying yobs.
On the whole I think the jury is still out. I feel we should gradually work towards disarmament while maintaining some deterrence. We ought not to go about invading other countries and starting expensive and unwinnable wars.
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