News
What Can I Do?
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- Published on Friday, 19 March 2021 14:01
The UK Government has just announced that it intends to massively increase its nuclear weapons stockpile, walking away from its international obligations and adding to an already-catastrophic threat to humankind.
To add further insult, this comes only two weeks after we marked Marshall Islands’ Day of Remembrance: mourning the deep damage done by nuclear weapons ‘testing’ to our fellow humans and to our planet. The Prime Minister’s hubristic, dangerous and shameful announcement shows how little we have learnt from the terrible errors of our past.
Join us
If you want to be part of a movement standing shoulder-to-shoulder for an end to nuclear weapons in Scotland and in the world, join us today. Help us to work for an end to weapons of mass murder and destruction.
Use your vote
The Scottish Elections take place on 6 May 2021. If the UK Government is determined to escalate its commitment to nuclear weapons, it is imperative that our commitment to nuclear disarmament should be even stronger, even louder, even clearer. We want to make sure that every candidate for this Election hears the message: #NukesAreMyRedLine. We will not be voting for any candidate who is not prepared to make nuclear disarmament a priority.
If you agree, please share our Election resources, come along to our Peace Hustings, spread the word among your friends and family, and above all, use your vote wisely.
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UK DROPS “STEP-BY-STEP” NUCLEAR DISARMAMENT
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- Published on Tuesday, 16 March 2021 00:14
Campaigners have reacted with distress and anger at the news that the UK has decided to increase the number of nuclear bombs it deploys and stockpiles by 40%.
In the last two decades the UK has gradually reduced the number of warheads to around 180, claiming the reduction as a sign of a good intention to fulfil its obligation under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) to take genuine steps towards disarmament. Critics have pointed out that reducing the number of nuclear bombs to a point where you are still able to inflict devastation at over a thousand times that unleashed on Hiroshima 75 years ago, and at the same time modernising the system, is not a genuine step towards disarmament.
Now the UK will in fact increase the number of warheads to 260, a move at odds its policy hitherto of claiming to regard the NPT as the “cornerstone” of the global disarmament framework.
Scottish CND Chair Lynn Jamieson said:
“What neo-colonial delusions and swaggering machismo goes from building ‘a better Britain’ to investment in more nuclear weapons -good for agonising mass death and poisoning for all living things but nothing else. Forget the old think of ‘deterrence’ the majority world is moving on. Commitment to more nuclear weapons is dangerous nose-thumbing at the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) which some state actors regard as potentially dovetailing with the UN Treaty for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. Rather than negotiations towards cessation of the nuclear arms race as the NPT requests, our government is starting its own. The climate emergency, the pandemic and the Brexit catastrophe require a focus on real security achieved by reducing inequalities and working to heal environmental and social harms – nuclear weapons are the antithesis.”
Following this news and as the Scottish parliamentary election looms, the rift between Westminster and the Scottish Government in regard to the UK's WMD arsenal is set to widen. When the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons entered into force as international law on the 22nd of January Scotland's First Minister said: “While the Scottish Government is unable to become a Party to the Treaty, as First Minister I strongly support the principles of the Treaty and the work of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom. An independent Scotland would be a keen signatory and I hope the day we can do that is not far off.”
#NukesAreMyRedLine
MORE WMD FOR THE UK AS SCOTTISH ELECTION LOOMS
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- Published on Monday, 15 March 2021 11:12
For years the UK has been arguing that the gradual decrease in the numbers of nuclear bombs it has (both deployed and stockpiled) is a sure sign of its good intention to fulfil its obligations under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). That has always been a specious argument. To fulfil Article VI of the NPT nuclear armed states must take genuine steps towards disarmament. Reducing the number of nuclear bombs to a point where you are still able to inflict devastation at over a thousand times that unleashed on Hiroshima 75 years ago, and at the same time modernising your system to make it a more effective mass killer, is not a genuine step, to put it rather mildly. It is planning for genocide-lite. At the same time, in a further breach of the NPT, the UK has been actively collaborating with another nuclear-armed state, the US, at scientific and technical level. And while the modernisation is going on, the UK is sneering at the nuclear ban treaty (TPNW) and says that the NPT is “the cornerstone of the international nuclear non-proliferation regime and provides the essential foundation for the pursuit of nuclear disarmament.” Thus far we are talking about a sleazy attempt to pull the wool, worthy of tobacco companies punting the health-giving qualities of the weed.
Now the mask has dropped. If the predictions are true, this week the UK will announce its intention to increase the number of nuclear bombs it possesses. It is not only foolish - it is extremely dangerous. It demonstrates again that we cannot rely on fluctuating arms control to save us from nuclear disaster – only compete elimination will do – hence the TPNW.
We have a Scottish election in just a few weeks time. It is vital that the nuclear menace and the Nuclear Ban Treaty are high on the agenda. That's the task.
Marking Marshall Islands' Day of Remembrance
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- Published on Tuesday, 09 March 2021 10:38
On Monday 1 March, Scottish CND supporters and friends of the Marshall Islands gathered to mark the Marshall Islands' Day of Remembrance for the victims and survivors of nuclear tests.
The legacy of nuclear testing is a long and bitter one. The Marshall Islands, especially, have borne the brunt of 67 nuclear tests, carrying the scars of those tests on their bodies and on their lands. We heard stories and reflections on courage in the face of the most brutal adversity, and of a long and still-unanswered cry for justice. The recommendations of a UN Special Rapporteur's 2012 report on the impact of nuclear tests in the Marshall Islands have not been addressed by the international community, almost a decade after they were first set out.
Tribute to Kenneth McNeil
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- Published on Thursday, 04 March 2021 11:17
It is with great sadness that we have to say goodbye to our dearest lifelong CND supporter Kenneth McNeil. He was active since our formation and had a pivotal role in the nuclear disarmament and wider Scottish peace movement.
Isobel Lindsay - current vice chair of Scottish CND said:
"Kenneth had a continuous role in SCND from its formation until his death. I met him first around the 1960’s when he was on the SCND executive - never flamboyant, always steady, determined, consistent and principled.
I was not involved as an executive member through the seventies and eighties although active in campaigns because of my other commitments.
Sometime during the 1990’s Kenneth phoned me and asked if I would go on the executive because he was very worried about personality tensions which he felt were undermining the organisation. It was typical of him to try to find positive ways to resolve problems.
It did not sound like a very attractive invitation but knowing Kenneth’s dedication, I felt I could not say no. He is one of the movement’s quiet heroes."
Quiz: What does the Nuclear Ban mean for us?
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- Published on Friday, 22 January 2021 16:06
Deadline extended! The quiz is open for entries until 31 March 2021.
Learn more about the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons and be in with a chance to win exciting prizes to celebrate the Entry into Force of this landmark Treaty!
Take part in Scottish CND’s Nuclear Ban quiz here.
The top prize includes an opportunity (as soon as Covid restrictions allow) to have your photograph taken with the Nobel Peace Prize Medal which was awarded to the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) in 2017 in Oslo for its contribution to the Treaty.
There will be prizes for 1st, 2nd and 3rd place. In the event of a tie, top-scoring quizzes will be entered into a draw for prizes. All entrants will also receive a copy of the Treaty and an ICAN badge.
For this quiz, research is not cheating! Please feel free to search the internet or make use of these fantastic resources to find out more about the Treaty and how it can help us to build a nuclear-free world at last:
To get inspired, learn about the history of the Treaty at: https://www.icanw.org/
Discover the Treaty itself: https://www.un.org/disarmament/wmd/nuclear/tpnw/
Learn more about the Scottish context at: https://www.nuclearban.scot/
Find out more about Scottish CND and join us at: http://www.banthebomb.org/ - and don't forget to look out for the completed answers on our website from March 2021!
This quiz is now open until 31 March 2021 (deadline extended!). One entry per person.
Labour Dig Themselves Deeper Into The Nuclear Hole
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- Published on Friday, 26 February 2021 13:47
This week, in his speech to the UN about the climate emergency, David Attenborough said:
“Perhaps most significant lesson brought by these 12 months has been that we are no longer separate nations, each best served by looking after its own needs and security. We are a single global species whose greatest threats are shared and whose security must ultimately come from acting together, in the interests of us all.”
Compare this realism with the latest line from UK Labour and its shadow defence secretary John Healey, that Labour's support for keeping the UK's nuclear weapons is "non-negotiable". This is a switch from the tone of recent times in which the issue might have only arisen when the question was asked. In contrast Healey's pitch is proactive – it's aim is to prove beyond doubt Labour's virility - a macho commitment to establish beyond question its readiness to put aside all squeamishness in regard to preparations for the slaughter of vast numbers of innocent civilians. And where is Scottish Labour in all this?
It is utterly depressing that in the UK both the governing party and the official opposition are digging themselves ever deeper into a backward and ignorant hole. The threats we face are of such a nature that the choice facing us is peaceful global collaboration or global ruin. UK policy is indeed to amplify and refine one of these threats – the risk of catastrophic nuclear war. Against such rank stupidity stands the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons – the call of the world for the complete elimination of that risk.