NUCLEAR weapons are about to be banned. As matters of defence are reserved to the UK Parliament, Scotland is not currently eligible to sign the Nuclear Weapons Ban treaty, whose wording was finalised in New York yesterday (July 7). We can, however, put renewed pressure on the nine nuclear armed states (who, along with some of their allies, have boycotted the negotiations) to show they are serious in their commitment to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT).
The NPT was drawn up almost 50 years ago with the aim of nuclear disarmament and the elimination of all nuclear arsenals. Yet today, the five main nuclear armed states have a stockpile of around 15,000 nuclear warheads. Each warhead could obliterate a city the size of Glasgow and have a widespread and devastating effect on all forms of life, both in Scotland and throughout the world. The NPT has clearly failed.
The Nuclear Weapons Ban treaty will make nuclear weapons as illegal as landmines and chemical warfare. So I look forward to the day when we can celebrate the removal of all the nuclear warheads from the Trident missiles housed in the submarines based at Faslane and from the nearby stockpile at RNAD Coulport.
Michael Rigg,
21 Southbrae Drive, Glasgow.
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