http://feeds.bignewsnetwork.com/?sid=5aee3fed6267b999On its submarines Britain has 48 nuclear warheads, each one eight times as powerful as the nuclear bomb that obliterated Hiroshima.
In other words, Prime Minister Tony Blair theoretically could order the almost instant incineration of 384 large cities around the world.
Barely anyone in Parliament has mentioned it, much less debated it in the eight and a half years Blair has been in office. But recently, all of a relative sudden, Blair has promised a discussion sometime “in the life of the present Parliament” because the US, the supplier of the Trident missiles, has made it clear that it will soon be taking a decision on replacing its own Tridents and the UK must decide in tandem what to do with its.
As Blair slides gently, but not particularly gracefully, to the end of his term in office it looks as if the prime minister has decided to kick this ball down the field for his successor to deal with. If it is, as is generally believed, Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown, it will be interesting to see how this high principled son of a Church of Scotland minister deals with this moral conundrum, particularly since powerful voices within the opposition Conservative Party seem to be increasingly both anti-the Iraq war and doubtful about the value of an independent nuclear deterrent. The other principal opposition party, the Liberal Democrats, has never been particularly supportive of nuclear weapons
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Decisions Decisions!!!