Good points, good protest. Well done and happy new year to you!

It's intersting how over the years the reasons for the objection to Nuclear weapons have changed. In the past organisations like CND told the UK public repeated lies about the Soviet threat and UK agression toward the Warsaw Pact nations (now quietly removed from their literature) and the latest incarnation of CND militancy manifests itself in the one or two people who maintain an occasional presence at the Faslane facility with the latest cry being "cost". A glib figure is produced that Trident costs "ten times the amount of aid going to the Tsunami area".

On what is this based ? Where are the figures produced from ? How does one quantify the costs of a weapon system whose major capital expenditure was all in the past ? Does the writer know or understand how the Royal Navy costs ship (submarine) maintainance ?

A spurious imotive argument is being used to "prove" a belief. The arguments against nuclear weapons are many. In this case the cost one simply does not stack up.

In terms of the cost of Trident...
The government admits that Trident costs £1.5 billion a year to maintain. The government pledged £50 million to the victims of the Tsunami. (Over 1000 times less actually, not ten times...)
Further, the war in Iraq cost £60 billion.
It is is my understanding that the 'mess' inside Faslane for entertaining base workers etc alone, cost over £100 million to build.
I think the lack of prioirity that the government gives to humanitarian relief compared with the money it spends on the military is a point worth highlighting...hence the action.

This action was one of Trident Ploughshares and nothing to do with the organisation, CND, though Trident Ploughshares does work with CND for some actions. You may note from the website, that by September there have been 2,184 arrests of Trident Ploughshares activists targetting mostly Faslane, in direct action. Not exactly a light presence I'd say, but a continued focussed campaign of direct action and civil disobedience which is overwhelming the local courts and disrupting base operations on practically a weekly basis.

and yes, Michael's message seems to have gone.
Peace.

If the public only knew the level of rampant spending by the military they'd riot in the streets cos of the waste of their taxes. The company I work for buys surplus electronics stuff often indirectly from the military which we then recycle to metal scrap or individual componenets. Recently we bought a load of simple brass screws originally stocked by the navy for practically nothing. Each one is packaged inside a box containing a poly bag, then corrugated cardboard, waxed paper, tissue paper. It'd probably cost 2 quid tops to manufacture such a screw, much less for quantities. The price as marked on the box for the cost of EACH screw is 118 quid. And due to our dear old official secrets act, the bureacrats who deal with the buying of such items can't even blow the whistle for fear of being banged up in prison.

Tony Spent Uk Notes Annihilating Many Iraqis (T.s.u.n.a.m.i.)

Sent all your lottey money/booze n' fags budget/Buy-to-Let mortgage payments to charity...but STILL have an itchy conscience??
So why not pledge a contribution to an organisation which really can DELIVER when it comes to destruction?
The M.o.D.
Just drop us a line - via the Inland Revenue - to say how much you'll pay in future to match munitions tonnage dropped on Iraq with aid tonnage to the Tsumani stricken regions..
25%.... 27%... 35%...41%... More....

What has amazed me has been the leapfrogging of the UK Gov emergency aid donations in response to that given by the British public.

At first the Gov announces something like £1M UKP of aid - gets panned in the media - ups it to £15M as the scale of the disaster begins to sink in.

Then the public donates something like £20 million in two days and the uk Gov ups its contribution again.

Then one or two days later and the uk public has given £50 million and the uk Gov again ups its aid by another £35M to match the contributions of normal people.

Now the uk public total has almost reached £80 million...

I find it utterly amazing that the public has given more than the government pledges each time. Amazing, depressing and inspiring all at the same time.

The other figure that made me think was the US Gov aid budget for this disaster - just FOUR HOURS worth of what it spends in Iraq! That makes me sick.