On Saturday 9th August 60 knitters and campaigners from Oxfordshire who had helped to create a seven-mile long pink scarf in protest against the replacement of the UK’s Trident nuclear weapons system saw their pieces of scarf connected with thousands from around the world stretched between Britain’s nuclear bomb factories in Berkshire – the Atomic Weapons Establishments at Aldermaston and Burghfield.
Knitters in Bonn, one of Oxford’s twin towns, also knitted panels to join the Oxford portion of the Peace Scarf. So many scarf panels were knitted that both sides of the route were connected.
The day marked the 69th anniversary of the atomic bombing of Nagasaki – and the campaigners called for Trident to be scrapped and its £100bn replacement to be cancelled: arguing that the money would be better spent on the NHS, job-creation, green energy and education.