The government’s position has already been made clear by the Defence Secretary John Reid. On 13th September he argued that nuclear weapons are required to combat unknown future enemies, saying "The decision is never an easy one, and I think recent history teaches us it is impossible in most cases to predict where your enemy will come from. So to say whether we might have a nuclear enemy in 15 years' time is a difficult question to answer, other than to say history probably suggests we will".

Last week, the Prime Minister Tony Blair was asked by the backbench Labour MP and Parliamentary CND member, Paul Flynn, “Will he tell us before any decision is made about spending a massive amount of money on a replacement for Trident, we can have a debate and a vote in the House?” In response the Prime Minister said little more than that “he had no doubt that there will be a great deal of discussion on the issue as the months and years unfold.”

A full public debate, a debate in Parliament, and a Parliamentary vote are essential, and Labour MPs Paul Flynn, John Austin and Gordon Prentice are putting a motion on the cost of a Trident Replacement to the Parliamentary Labour Party on 31^st October.

Now is the time for CND activists across the country to build broad campaigns in their local communities, putting pressure on their MPs and the government.

CND is increasingly being mentioned and quoted in the national media on this issue, and our campaigning is significantly helped by the findings of the Greenpeace poll reported in the Independent  (25th October 2005):

When asked the relatively neutral question: "Do you think the Government should replace its nuclear weapons or not?" a narrow majority of 46 per cent agree that it should not, while 44 per cent believe it should. And 10 per cent don't know. However, the result is radically different when interviewees are told that the cost of a replacement is likely to be around £25bn or the equivalent of building about 1,000 schools. Then, the number of people supporting replacement drops to one in three - 33 per cent - while those opposing replacement rises to 54 per cent.

CND has an opportunity to attract thousands of new members from anti-war activists, to trade unionists, from students  to faith  communities, who  can be won to oppose the replacement of Trident at a time of increasing US and UK military aggression.

CND activists should NOW:

• Arrange public meetings with CND representatives, supportive MPs and councillors and other members of political parties, trade unions, NGOs, faith groups, youths and students.
  • Ring the CND office on 0845 4583315 for a CND Officer to speak at your meeting.
  • Contact your local UNISON, CWU, RMT, FBU, ASLEF or CATU branch for a trade union representative.
  • Contact the Quakers or the Methodist Church as well as other faiths for a religious representative.
• The CND Preventing Trident Replacement Briefing is available at http://www.cnduk.org/pages/binfo/Tdtrep.pdf
• The CND No to Trident Replacement Petition for stalls and meetings is available at http://www.cnduk.org/pages/campaign/notdtrep.pdf  We are urging each CND member to get ten signatures, so we can present Tony Blair with over 320,000 names next Easter. 
• CND members should contact their local press to offer articles and write letters into correspondence pages.
• Radio phone-ins on the cost of public services could be used – reports suggest Trident replacement will cost up to £25billion – the same as building 1,000 new schools (The Independent : http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/article322052.ece).

A new leaflet is now being prepared, contact the office to order a batch and for further materials.

See also the excellent July 2005 Guardian article by the late Robin Cook at http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,1538378,00.html