HOLYROOD will hear a cross-party appeal to scrap Trident, ahead of a parliamentary debate on the issue this week.
Twenty-nine MSPs have signed a parliamentary motion highlighting a study by the think-tank the Jimmy Reid Foundation arguing that Trident missile submarines at Faslane will not create any new jobs, but will only sustain the current workforce, at a cost of nearly £18 million per employee.
It estimates the cost of renewing Trident to be £205 billion and says that a replacement programme would not lead to any jobs boost in Scotland.
MSPs backing the call to scrap Trident include the SNP's Mairi Evans and Christina McKelvie, Labour's Neil Findlay and Elaine Smith, as well as Greens Patrick Harvie and Alison Johnstone.
The motion, that Trident's continued presence would be a threat to Glasgow and the majority of Scotland’s population, will be ahead of a Holyrood debate on the issue on Wednesday.
Bob Thomson, convener of the Jimmy Reid Foundation, said: "Scottish public opinion has constantly been against nuclear weapons and we very much welcome the cross-party support of 29 MSPs and look forward to the debate on the issue this week."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel