Daniel Viesnik, a spokesperson for Trident Ploughshares and one of the signatories to the letter said:
"All around the world, people from the US President and former statesmen and military generals to rank-and-file campaigners are united in recognising the pressing need for global nuclear disarmament and ridding the world of the threat of nuclear war once and for all.

"It is time for the British Government to tally its words with its actions by no longer deploying its current Trident nuclear weapons, scrapping plans for their replacement and signing up to a Nuclear Weapons Convention - a global ban on nuclear weapons; only then will Britain have any genuine credibility on nuclear disarmament.

"The current economic crisis presents the ideal opportunity for the Government to review the advisability of wasting tens of billions of pounds on illegal, immoral and useless nuclear weapons, and instead focus limited resources on tackling climate change and meeting the genuine needs of society."

ENDS

Notes:

1. Trident Ploughshares is a campaign initiated in 1998 to disarm Britain's Trident nuclear weapons system in a nonviolent, open, peaceful and fully accountable manner.

 http://www.tridentploughshares.org

2. The letter can be seen in full here:
 http://www.tridentploughshares.org/article1552

3. Details of 2009 NPT Preparatory Committee, 4–15 May, New York
 http://www.reachingcriticalwill.org/legal/npt/2009index.html