Letter in the Scotsman 21st March 2025

So one of the UK’s ageing nuclear weapon submarines has completed a record tour of 204 days. The Navy has increased the length of nuclear submarine patrols due to refits and maintenance problems arising from skill shortages, and from maintaining the pattern of always having one boat on patrol at all times. There is now great pressure on the submariners as well as the obvious risks around having nuclear reactors, missiles and nuclear warheads on board old tin cans. Heads in the sand does not come near it.

According to the Ministry of Defence everything is fine and dandy since they are hurrying things up and will have the new boats ready by the “early 2030s”. They know that is rubbish, confirming what so many suspect that investment in the ghastly business by the current UK regime is more about giving the posturing and vice-signalling they deem necessary rather than a full-hearted intention to commit an atrocity and end human civilisation as we know it. They should of course be aware that the same dread outcome can be realised whatever the motivation – these complex systems for mass death have a way of acquiring their own momentum.

I continue to be outraged by the presence of these hideous weapons of mass destruction in our lands and waters. I continue to be outraged by the failure of the UK to abide by its obligations under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty to take genuine steps towards disarmament. This deplorable example, which is also given by the other nuclear-armed states which are party to that treaty, has contributed to moves in other nations to acquire these weapons by “nuclear-sharing” or by home-growing their own suicide system.

Those who have read Annie Jacobsen’s “Nuclear War – A Scenario” will know just how close we are to total catastrophe. The only genuine solution is total elimination. The majority of the world states share that understanding and support the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.

We need a new declaration for citizens and politicians alike:

1. We absolutely refuse to shelter under a “nuclear umbrella” and we affirm that nuclear weapons must under no circumstances be threatened or used to protect us or our interests, or in retaliation for a nuclear attack;
2. We will accede to the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW), thus aligning with the majority of the world’s nature who reject these inhumane weapons.

David Mackenzie