Renewal of Trident discussed in parliament

British lawmakers have debated the future of the country’s costly  nuclear submarine fleet, shortly after a Scottish opinion poll revealed that almost half of Scots are opposed to upgrading the Trident program.

The debate came a few days after the MPs condemned government’s plan to spend billions of pounds on renewing the nuclear submarine before parliament has approved a replacement.

The debate was called by the Scottish National Party (SNP), Green Party, and Welsh national party Plaid Cymru.

Labour boycott

The debate was boycotted by most members of the Labour Party, which has already supported upgrading Trident.

In a press statement, the SNP questioned Labour’s boycott of the debate and slammed it for supporting spending cuts aimed at containing budget shortfall.

“Labour’s refusal to take part in the debate on Trident comes less than one week after the party voted along with the Tories for a further £30 billion of austerity cuts,” the SNP said.

Spiraling costs

Last week, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) released a report on the expenditures of the program. It was revealed that the cost of the program’s “assessment phase” will increase by an additional £261 million this year.

Renewal of Trident is expected to cost £20 billion.

The cost of the overall program over the next 25 years, however, is estimated to be £80 billion.

Scots against nukes

A new poll, conducted by Survation and commissioned by SNP, revealed that 47 percent of Scots oppose Trident renewal, 32 percent support it, and 21 percent “don’t know.”

The nuclear submarine is based just 25 miles west of Glasgow.

Meanwhile, SNP has hailed the results of the poll and called on all parties to oppose the renewal of Trident program.

‘’This poll reveals a clear majority who expressed an opinion support the SNP’s position on opposition to the renewal of Trident. …Opposition to Trident renewal extends across every region of Scotland, but most noticeably in Glasgow where 70 per cent are opposed, and in the West of Scotland where 63 per cent are against its renewal,” SNP Westminster Leader and defense spokesperson Angus Robertson said.

Cold War mindset

A UK-based political analyst believes proponents of Trident renewal have stuck in cold war era thinking.

“The British UK deterrent, and the military philosophy behind it, is the result of the cold war versus communism in which there were 2 systems, both of them wrong, and they were opposed to each other and you got what was called the MAD policy, which is M-A-D, Mutually Assured Destruction. But since the fall of communism in 1999 and 1990, a new world has actually been coming to being, although the west and America still have a mindset, set in the past,” Professor Rodney Shakespeare told Press TV.

‘Scandalous’ spending

A number of British MPs have already condemned expenditure on Trident nuclear submarine successor before the parliament has approved a replacement.

“When Labour MPs have voted with the Tories for another £30bn of austerity cuts, it is frankly scandalous that a further quarter of a billion pounds of taxpayers’ money is to be spent on Trident before parliamentarians even get a vote on whether or not to replace the system," said Angus Robertson, the SNP’s Westminster leader and defense spokesman.

 “In no other democracy, at a time of deep austerity and cuts, would over £3bn be spent on committing to such a massive project without consulting parliamentarians. Robbing the future budget of Trident only suggests they have already underestimated the eye-watering final cost,” he concluded.

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