Tuesday, March 16, 2021
Why does the UK need more nuclear warheads?
It is tempting to link UK government plans to restrict protests with their latest announcement to end three decades of gradual disarmament and increase the number of nuclear warheads in the country. One might think that Ministers would prefer to nuke certain protests and are only being held back by the fact that in doing so they may damage a statue or two.
The plans to lift the cap on the number of the number of nuclear warheads in the UK's stockpile as reported here by the Independent, makes no sense whatsoever. The paper says that Dominic Raab has described the move as the "ultimate insurance policy" against threats from hostile states. It is almost as if he has abandoned diplomacy, working through the United Nations and the use of conventional force as a last resort.
It is not clear who the government thinks it might use the weapons against or who it thinks might consider launching a nuclear attack on the UK. Just nine countries in the world still have nuclear weapons, putting the UK out-of-step with most of its European neighbours.
This is a very dangerous development that needs to be resisted.
The plans to lift the cap on the number of the number of nuclear warheads in the UK's stockpile as reported here by the Independent, makes no sense whatsoever. The paper says that Dominic Raab has described the move as the "ultimate insurance policy" against threats from hostile states. It is almost as if he has abandoned diplomacy, working through the United Nations and the use of conventional force as a last resort.
It is not clear who the government thinks it might use the weapons against or who it thinks might consider launching a nuclear attack on the UK. Just nine countries in the world still have nuclear weapons, putting the UK out-of-step with most of its European neighbours.
This is a very dangerous development that needs to be resisted.
