On Ash Wednesday in 1982 members of Pax Christi and Christian CND went to the Ministry of Defence in Whitehall and held a religious service in protest at Britain’s reliance on nuclear weapons and the mass destruction of innocent populations these would cause were they ever to be used.
Every year since they have come back with the same message:
in a Liturgy of Repentance and Resistance, although it’s exact form changes from year to year.
This year, outside the Old War Office, black and purple ribbons were tied to a white cross as prayers were said for those killed in wars and violence:
It’s hard to see why we hold on to our nuclear weapons, difficult even to know who they are meant to deter now, after the end of the cold war. It was a policy that never made a great deal of sense, keeping a peace that it was in any case in no one’s interest to break.
Now it is far more about national prestige, “keeping a place at the top table” particularly in the UN, and not really about defence at all. I don’t think anyone can imagine a believable scenario in which we would deliberately fire our nuclear missiles (even if the US would give us the permission necessary.)
Far easier and much more likely are the possibilities of misuse and of these dangerous weapons being stolen by terrorists. The government lost all the arguments over Trident replacement but still decided it must go ahead, despite the dangers and the enormous sums of money involved. And it is of course that which is the real driver. These weapons may be useless and outmoded, their use certainly against all reason and international law, but the profits for a small group of the rich and powerful are huge. It’s decisions like this that tell us who really runs the country whichever government is apparently in power.
More about the event and pictures on My London Diary.