Majority of the UK Opposes Trident Replacement

An ICM poll commissioned by the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament shows that 59% of British people oppose the replacement of Trident, Britain’s nuclear weapons system. The poll results demonstrate a 5% increase in public opposition to Trident replacement over an identically phrased question from a MORI/Greenpeace poll from September 2005.

Strong public opposition to Trident replacement is also apparent from CND’s ˜No Trident Replacement” petition, which was handed in to the Prime Minister on Friday 4th August at 11am. CND members throughout the UK collected over 53,000 signatures calling on the government not to replace Trident or develop any new nuclear weapons system. The petition was handed in by Kate Hudson, Chair of CND, together with Air Commodore Alistair Mackie, Canon Paul Ostreicher, Bruce Kent, and newly elected Labour NEC member Walter Wolfgang. Theatre of War demonstrated the huge financial and social burden of a Trident replacement with nurses, firefighters, and teachers carrying the weight of a large replica missile.

Public opposition to Trident Replacement has been steadily increasing despite government attempts to portray it as necessary to Britain's future security.
Kate Hudson, Chair of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, said, “The ICM poll and the No Trident Replacement petition prove that ordinary people see through the government’s case. People are increasingly seeing the reality of the situation that replacing Trident will start a new nuclear arms race. If Britain insists that it needs nuclear weapons to ensure its security, other countries will conclude the same, leading to increased proliferation.”

The poll and petition hand-in coincide with the 61st anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima (August 6, 1945), which killed over 140,000 people. Britain’s Trident nuclear weapons system currently consists of approximately 200 nuclear bombs, each of which are 8 times more powerful than the bomb dropped on Hiroshima in 1945.