Greetings, hoping you have some joy in good weather and asking you to remember to vote and to encourage others to do so. The composition of our Scottish parliament sets the political tone and either helps or hinders us in our campaign. Vote for a world without nuclear weapons that is safer, saner, more concerned with the real security of people and the sustainability of our planet.
Over the last parliament, the number of Scottish Nationalists and Scottish Greens meant that the majority of our representatives opposed both nuclear weapons and new nuclear power. Please only vote for candidates who are anti-nuclear.
Sadly, the party policies of the Scottish Conservatives, Scottish Labour, Scottish Liberal Democrats and Reform UK remain unashamedly pro-nuclear weapons and pro-nuclear power. While party policy is generally your best guide to a candidate’s views, remember there are some exceptions. Ideally you need to know your candidate as well as their party. A few have answered the questions below and you can find their answers at
https://www.nuclearban.scot/people-and-parliament/
- Sign the ICAN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons Parliamentarians Pledge, Yes or No
- Support a continued ban on any new nuclear power plants in Scotland, Yes or No
- Support infrastructure of renewable energy to replace gas, oil and coal? Yes or No
- Ensure Scotland and its infrastructure does not violate international law or support war crimes? Yes or No
Meanwhile the Review Conference of the Non-Proliferation Treaty – intended to both prevent the spread of nuclear weapons and achieve their total eradication – got off to a grumpy start at the United Nations in New York. Sadly, the four-week long event is already expected to end in failure.
Most of the world, 191 countries, are represented as signatories to the NPT, but not the nuclear states of Israel, India, Pakistan, and North Korea who are outside the treaty. It is the persistent failures of nuclear signatories, USA, Russia, UK, France and China, to honour the NPT that led to the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. The majority of the non-nuclear states in the world now place hope in the TPNW for progress.
Scottish CND is currently being represented at the NPT Review by Timmon Wallis a USA-based peace activist with his roots in the UK and Scotland. He is sending us short video reports which you can pick up on Scottish CND’s Instagram channel. Bill Kidd is also there as Co-President of the Parliamentarians for Non Proliferation and Nuclear Disarmament delegation of Parliamentarians and the Labour Jeremy Corbyn MP and Bell Ribeiro-Addy MP.
THANKS TO BILL KIDD
Bill Kidd has served as an SNP MSP in the Scottish Parliament since 2007 and for many years as chair of the crossparty group on nuclear disarmament. After decades of effective campaigning as a parliamentarian, he is standing down at this election but we can be confident that he will remain a peace activist all of his days, for which we are profoundly grateful.