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“Time to go” has suddenly become a popular political theme.
In the world of Westminster, of course, it is all about the fate of Tony
Blair and whether or when he will be ousted by his one-time friend, the
Chancellor. For us in CND, however, “time to go” is about
whether any new incumbent will want to change any of the disastrous and
dangerous policies which have marred Tony Blair’s premiership. It
is certainly time for nuclear weapons to go (and not be replaced), time
for troops to be gone from Iraq, it is high time that nuclear power was
gone, and it is also time that US nuclear bases were gone, not just from
the UK, but from all those bases from which it maintains its dominance
as the world’s only superpower.
The foreign policy of Tony Blair and the British Government has wreaked
havoc the world over. Possibly the biggest foreign policy blunder ever
committed by a British prime minister was to sign up to the Bush war on
terrorism - totally, uncritic-ally, and unequivocally. This disastrous
policy has achieved exactly the opposite of what it set out to do. Osama
Bin Laden has not been caught (although he might have been had attention
not been diverted to Iraq), Iraq, once a sworn enemy of the fundamentalism
of Al Qaida, has now become a fertile breeding ground for it: far from
democracy being established in Iraq there is civil war in all but name,
the Middle East peace process is dead and two of the “axis of evil”
states, Iran and North Korea, are closer to nuclear capability than they
ever have been.
As Clare Short said when she spoke to Brentwood CND in June, so long as
we retain nuclear weapons
(which are supplied, serviced and controlled by the US) then we shall
be subjected to the twists and turns of US foreign policy.
The signs are so far not good. Gordon Brown has already declared himself
publicly in favour of Trident renewal (thus pre-empting the debate which
we were promised would take place). We must hope that, should he become
Prime Minister, he will take stock of some of the more disastrous decisions
of his predecessor and take some note of public opinion. CND recently
handed in its 53,000 signature petition against Trident renewal to Downing
Street (4th August) and the latest ICM pool, commissioned by CND, shows
a majority of British citizens (59%) opposed to renewal . This is an increase
on the Greenpeace poll of 2005 which showed 54% against.
To coincide with the opening of the Labour Party conference, CND and the
Stop the War Coalition are organising a demonstration in Manchester on
Saturday, 23rd September to remind the party that the British public does
not want money to be spent on nuclear weapons or on follies in Iraq. It
is of utmost importance to give a signal to the new leadership that these
are issues which we will not allow to go away. A coach from Southend will
pick up people from Brentwood outside Argos at 7.15am. Try to make it
so that we can make our voice heard.
Published by Brentwood CND (Jill Dimmock) c/o 26 Mascalls Gardens, Brentwood CM14 5LT