Very rare post on defence
Here’s something you won’t see often on this blog - a post on defence policy. I’m not convinced that Trident replacement is quite what we should spend millions of pounds on, so I’m disappointed (though not surprised) that the vote passed this evening. But, I was really pleased to see my MP, Andrew Smith, voted against it - a principled decision from an MP who doesn’t take rebelling lightly. From tomorrow’s Oxford Mail:
One of the Labour rebels, Oxford East MP Andrew Smith, said he had “always loathed” nuclear weapons.
He said the estimated £20bn cost of the project would be better spent tackling climate change, improving schools and hospitals and ensuring conventional troops were better equipped.
Update: Phillip Cowley on the rebels here, including a full list of who rebelled.
There was a lack of a clear and formal consultation period before the decision was made. This was actually what Tony Blair and his ministers promised but failed to deliver on.
So this is basically another Chevaline: these decisions were already taken some time ago by the British secret state. Now its to be railroaded through parliament. As long as the policy is perceived to be ‘right’ to some folk, including some some in the Labour Party, they are not bothered about deception, secrecy and lack of proper consultation and accountability. Nor even about the huge bill to the taxpayer, apparently.
Wretched stuff - and fully supported by the Tories of course.
Indeed it is at moments like these that one wonders why the Labour Party exists, if it simply pushes through obviously solid Tory policies like this.
The mild and reasonable Lib Dem proposal, to wait a bit with a view to reducing the number of warheads further (perfectly sensible and feasible, although by no means radical) looks decidedly left wing compared to Labour and the Conservatives trying to outbid each other on renewal.
There is absolutely no pressing reason to take this decision now - unless the aim is to railroad it (hence one manufactures time pressure, blackmail etc - the usual Blairite tactics.)
Hi
I too was delighted that my MP, Graham Stringer, voted against Trident.
Shame he supported privatising the probation service - but we can’t have everything.
OT: What, no defence of Gordon Brown’s great raid on the poor?
Were all the MPs who voted for renewal unprincipled?
no Tim, just most of the labour pay-roll vote - and the ones angling for jobs under Gordon, and the ones too scared to make any sort of stand against BAE and the whips despite grave reservations about the Necessity (and there were many) of the boondoggle.