Recently
I have received a number of emails titled “Wash our hands of Trident to combat
COVID19”.
Frankly
I think it is appalling that some should make light of the serious advice from
the Government to wash our hands, and to use this public health crisis to
advance their narrow and unpopular agenda to lobby MPs to weaken our national
defence infrastructure.
Not only that, they are proposing that the Government suddenly
make thousands of service personnel and civilians in Scotland redundant at this
difficult time for our economy.
What
the current crisis is showing us, above all, is that we are living in an
ever-more uncertain world.
This
alone should be a powerful enough reason for the retention and renewal of
Trident.
The
defence of our people, our realm and our interests domestically and overseas
should be the first priority of any government, as it is rightly so currently.
It
is absolutely vital that we maintain a continuous independent nuclear deterrent
as the ultimate guarantee of our national security.
The
Government has consistently set out the case for maintaining our nuclear
deterrent. Of course all of us would wish that we could live in a world without
nuclear weapons.
However,
it is clear that the world today is becoming an ever more dangerous and in many
ways unstable place to live. I believe firmly that we cannot dismiss the
possibility that a major direct nuclear threat to the UK might re-emerge.
