The government of an independent Scotland would be obliged to remove Trident, according to the draft Independence Bill published in mid June. And the Scottish Government is asking people what they think of the proposed bill. Please support the anti-nuclear clause by letting the government know what you think. Take part in the consultation at: http://bit.ly/1lyMpeq
The draft bill calls for a formal rejection of nuclear weapons in two stages:
1. The interim constitution says the Scottish Government must negotiate “the safe and expeditious removal from the territory of Scotland of the nuclear weapons based there.”
2. The permanent constitution would be created by a constitutional convention after 2016. The current Scottish Government and the Green Party propose that it should include a ban on nuclear weapons.
The Peace and Justice Centre has welcomed the draft bill. Peace and Justice Centre Coordinator Brian Larkin said “The Peace and Justice Centre has long campaigned for nuclear disarmament and is urging people to consider voting YES because leaving the UK currently appears to be the only available route to getting rid of Trident. The draft bill, with its inclusion of a proposed Constitutional ban on nuclear weapons assures us that a future Scotland will be obliged to insist on the removal of nuclear weapons from Faslane. And, given the enormous costs of relocating them south of the border and other factors it is likely that the remaining UK will be forced to relinquish its nuclear weapons. It would then be the first of the P-5 countries and the first country on the Security Council to disarm its nuclear weapons, an occurrence which would have a ripple effect and could signal the beginning of the end of entrenched big power reliance on nuclear weapons for security.”
Find out more: http://bit.ly/1p96Luk
Featured image by Defence Images CC BY-SA 2.0
