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Stirling CND AGM
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- Published on Monday, 22 November 2010 20:01
"Political Risks Necessary over Trident" says Green candidate at Stirling CND AGM
With the Holyrood elections just over six months away Stirling CND invited the local Green Party candidate, Mark Ruskell, to speak at the AGM on 17th November. Mark gave his analysis of how the anti-Trident agenda had got stuck at Scottish Parliament level after the early promise of debates on Trident and the setting up of the Working Group for Scotland Without Nuclear Weapons.
In his view the administration has placed the Trident issue in a box marked "too difficult", perhaps due to anxieties around upsetting relations with Westminster. For nuclear disarmament, and indeed for the overarching need to reshape the UK's toxic approach to foreign relations, political risks and civil disobedience at parliamentary and government level were necessary. There were useful examples elsewhere in which radical politicians had been able to make live and effective links between non-governmental groups representing environmental or consumer concerns on the one hand and the relevant civil servants on the other to bring about real governmental change.
In the lead-up to the elections voters should not be satisfied with a simple "I am against Trident" statement, but should dig further and ask what specific and concrete steps the candidate would take.