EVEN if you believe in the logic of Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD). Even if you think a nuclear base on the Clyde is a deterrent rather than a likely potential target.
Even if the phrase “increased readiness, availability and lethality” gives you a warm fuzzy glow rather than prostrating you with terror – does £15 billion not seem a lot to spend on something supposedly designed to never be used?
Aside from the repeated leaks of tritium and the inevitable cover-ups by both the MOD and Scottish Environmental Protection Agency (military bases are exempt from civilian pollution controls), the watchdog organisation, the Infrastructure and Projects Authority, published a damning report stating the project is in doubt, with major risks or issues apparent in a number of key areas, having “major issues with project definition, schedule, budget, quality and/or benefits delivery which at this stage do not appear to be manageable or resolvable”.
Faslane is the home of the nation’s nuclear deterrent and the new generation of hunter-killer submarines. Each submarine carries up to 16 missiles. Each missile carries up to eight warheads. Each warhead has a yield of 100 kilotons of TNT, six times greater than the bomb that destroyed Hiroshima – is it just me, or does this make the case for increased lethality seem a little shaky?
To quote the independent organisation Scientists for Global Responsibility, “Nuclear weapons are the epitome of an unsustainable security strategy and create enormous risks for humanity and the global environment.” The case for abandoning this grandiose project and committing the UK to a future without weapons of mass destruction is becoming stronger by the day.
Maybe I’m just a pessimist, but as a child the regular sight of nuclear subs patrolling the Clyde during the Cold War did not make me feel safe.
They were the stuff of nightmares – nightmares I’d hoped we were beginning to collectively waken from. Apparently not so. And despite the clear and obvious risks to all, some few will continue to benefit richly from this folly (just as they will from the proposed data centre at Ardyne). Just another example of what author Kapka Kasabova calls the “genocidal, ecocidal greed” of the global industrial-military complex whose appetites are incompatible with the survival of a human Earth.
Frightened anyone? Or is it just me?
