Successful scrap Trident meeting

A room-filling 60 people met to listen and respond to Bruce Kent's Scrap Trident meeting on 3 April at Exeter Community Centre, St Davids Hill.
Points from the meeting:

Nuclear weapons make for global instability. The logic of the UK's argument that global uncertainty validates our nuclear weapons is that all should have them.
Some are in the possession of unstable states notably Pakistan.

Our 'independent' deterrent isn't independent. We depend on US technology for targetting, 'our' warheads are refurbished in the US and a US company runs Aldermaston.

The UK pretends that the Non Proliferation Treaty entitles us to keep weapons, but the Government ignores its obligation under the same treaty to negotiate for their abolition.

The argument that these weapons provide jobs is spurious - after the Second World War some 5 million people moved from war production to peaceful industry in about 2 years. The jobs argument doesn't impress the Scots although our Trident fleet is based there - 75% of the people of Scotland are anti-Trident, an even greater proportion than in the rest of the UK.

Comment:
It was very disappointing than no-one with a pro-nuclear viewpoint turned up. The local political parties had been invited to the debate. The Deputy Lord Mayor of Exeter chaired the meeting and would have ensured a fair hearing. It is perhaps understandable that Labour and the Lib Dems were not there; after all a majority of their members are probably anti-Trident. But surely the Conservatives......