"We cannot afford this ludicrous waste of money on nuclear weapons with no conceivable use," said Councillor Abjol Miah, Respect's candidate for Bethnal Green and Bow.
"We are facing massive cuts in funding to Tower Hamlets council, some £60 million over the next three years. Essential services will be slashed, hundreds of council workers will be sacked and support for the third and voluntary sector will be cut off. That is what is in prospect from the consensus that runs across the three major parties.
"But Trident will cost the British taxpayer £100 billion for nuclear weapons to be aimed at what? Russia is no longer a threat in terms of nuclear attack but even if it was, letting loose nuclear missiles on Russia would bring instant annihilation. We are living in a completely different world now from twenty years ago, yet we have defence policy geared up to fighting the Cold War rather than dealing with the problems that confront us today.
"If we pull our troops out of fighting an unwinnable war in Afghanistan and immediately cancel Trident, we will not only save lives, we will save billions that can then be used both to repay government debt and sustain and improve the services that particularly the poorer members of our society depend upon."
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Twitter Trackbacks for Cut Trident not public services says respect : Socialist Resistance: Fourth International in Britain [socialistresistance.org] on Topsy.com · 23 April 2010
[...] Cut Trident not public services says respect : Socialist Resistance: Fourth International in Britain socialistresistance.org/?p=908 – view page – cached "We cannot afford this ludicrous waste of money on nuclear weapons with no conceivable use," said Councillor Abjol Miah, Respect’s candidate for Bethnal Green and Bow. Tweets about this link Topsy.Data.Twitter.User['socres'] = {"location":"Britain","photo":"http://a3.twimg.com/profile_images/586234765/logo_izquierda_anticapitalista_120_normal.png","name":"Socialist Resistance","url":"http://twitter.com/socres","nick":"socres","description":"Ecosocialist, feminist and revolutionary. We are Fourth International's section in Britain - and we're looking for new members!nnFacebook:http://bit.ly/SocRes","influence":""}; socres: “Cut Trident not public services says respect: "We cannot afford this ludicrous waste of money on nuclear weapons w... http://bit.ly/aUalVB ” 27 minutes ago view tweet retweet Filter tweets [...]
Dan · 24 April 2010
A group of Tower Hamlets taxpayers, disgusted by the waste and lack of transparency filed almost 100 freedom of information act requests to build a website - Tower Hamlets Councillors Compensation -
http://www.towerhamletscouncillorscompensation.info
detailing compensation paid to councillors, as well as motions advanced, surgery hours, attendance at meetings of the full council and more.
This information is legally required to be in the public domain.
Stevie Warne · 26 April 2010
Opinion polls show a big majority of the public are opposed to replacing Trident. This is because, unlike mainstream politicians, they would rather spend public money on schools, hospitals, and local services than weapons of mass destruction.