Brian ENO comes out against Trident

2.00.14pm GMT Wed 28th Feb 2007

No New Trident logo

With the Liberal Democrats discussing Trident this coming Saturday I was interested to see that Brian Eno (musician, artist and producer) has come out against Trident. Brian think Trident is wrong for the following reasons:

*It's the wrong weapons system for the 21st century, a product of the cold war standoff and useless for any foreseeable future threats.

• It diverts resources from more relevant defence programmes, not to mention other social programmes unrelated to defence.

• Since it's an American system and inoperable without their permission it ties us to America's military ambitions for the next several decades.

• Extending Trident into the future negates the position we took in the Non-Proliferation Treaty, and removes any moral high-ground we might have had for arguing against the global development of nuclear weapons.

• It is neither necessary nor sensible to make this decision about Trident now. Even in the unlikely event that we all came to believe Trident was a good idea, it would not make sense to embark upon it without knowing more about the weapons systems that America is planning to develop for the future and with which Trident is supposed to be integrated. This information will not be available for several years.

• Britain has a historic chance to be the first of the nuclear nations to move towards nuclear-free status by refusing Trident. This would place us in an unimpeachable moral position and make us world leaders in disarmament. Now THAT would be a legacy for Blair - if he had the brains to take it.