The Strategic Defence and Security Review (SDSR), planned for publication on 23 November 2015, is expected to include an update on the Trident renewal project and financial estimates. Main Gate decision is likely to be put to Parliament early 2016. Like every major government project, MoD procurement officials will have conducted a detailed confidential risk analysis for the construction, but this project requires a far broader, comprehensive risk analysis over a set of areas, as listed in this briefing.
Trident Cost-Saving Options
Trident's costs could be spiralling, as reported this week, though it may be too early to tell. Either way, the government is protecting this huge and most controversial military procurement project whilst deeply controversial welfare cuts are being debated. It is not considering cheaper alternatives even as the MoD itself suffers.
Labour and Trident Now
This week's non-debate of Trident at the Labour Party conference is now an opportunity to reframe the issue and set the UK on a more stable path towards a non-nuclear future. But it will take collaboration between people on different sides of the current divide.
We now need an informed Trident debate
Rising above petty politics
The nature and quality of the media storm since Jeremy Corbyn’s election as leader of the Labour Party, when criticising his open-ended position over the EU, his wearing a peace poppy when remembering past conflicts, or his position on Trident, betrays a group-think pack mentality that is out of touch with the disillusionment of many people with anodyne mainstream positional politics.
What If Hiroshima Did Not Force the Japanese to Surrender?
You may hear a lot this week that the bombing of Hiroshima was a turning point for humanity – the most important historic event of the 20th century, ushering in the nuclear age. From that moment on, 70 years ago, humans had to come to terms with the fact that we could cause our own devastation along with the majority of large species inhabiting this planet.
Labour Needs a Global Nuclear Disarmament Policy
Once again Trident emerges as a key flag issue that establishes where candidates for the Labour leadership election stand. Andy Burnham has perhaps the most difficult task, being deeply sceptical about nuclear weapons personally but claiming that current international instability, and particularly Russian threats to European security, means it is not now the time for Britain to consider abandoning the weapons.
A breakthrough for Iranian fanatics
Iranian radicals who see themselves on the front line against Zionism and the Great Satan are on tenterhooks this summer. Iran, a weak middle-power country often itself isolated from the rest of the world, could succeed in dealing a huge blow to the credibility of the most powerful state on the planet, and with it the positive values it represents.
Iran Deal: Now We Must Change Direction
This nuclear deal is a good one for an international community that desperately needs strong assurance when it comes to nuclear non-proliferation.