Plaid Cymru’s Hywel Williams MP has challenged the Liberal Democrats to remember the real reason behind opposition to the development of a new Trident weapons system – that it is a nuclear weapons system which would kill millions of people if ever used.
The Liberal Democrats have advocated replacing Trident – but only if it can be done by a cheaper alternative. Currently there are no plans to review Trident as it is excluded from the strategic defence spending review.* However not a single Liberal Democrat MP voted to consider the future of Trident in parliament recently – by voting against its inclusion in the SDSR.
Plaid Cymru have long called for Trident to be scrapped and have argued that excluding Trident from the defence spending review is irresponsible. Mr Williams has called on the LibDems to come clean over their stance on Trident – and join Plaid Cymru in urging its immediate removal on moral grounds.
Mr Williams said:
“The discussion about opposition to Trident has generally been about the costs rather than the principle, as if somehow a cheaper version of Trident would be better or more acceptable than a more expensive weapons system.
“The reason that Trident is wrong is because it is a state-owned method of committing mass murder. No more and no less.
“Our refusal to support a replacement Trident in Plaid Cymru is based on our principled opposition to the creation, never mind use, of weapons of mass destruction.
“The Liberal Democrats fudged this issue at the General Election, arguing that they weren’t in favour of Trident, but forgetting to mention that they were actually still in favour of a nuclear replacement – just one which didn’t cost as much.
“That was an admission which disappointed many people who believe they were hoodwinked by Nick Clegg’s over this.
“A replacement Trident is a huge waste of money which should be spent in other places – helping the poor, paying off our debts, greening our economy – but that’s not the reason which we should be rejecting the Tory and Labour proposals to renew it.
“We should be rejecting it because, put simply, it’s wrong.”
