Prime Minister David Cameron confirmed before Parliament today that based upon a completed “value for money review” of the United Kingdom's deterrent, “the decision to start construction of the new submarines need not now be taken until around 2016.”
The Prime Minister also highlighted other changes in the nuclear posture:
Britain's Liberal Democrat armed forces minister, Nick Harvey, indicates that the final decision on the replacement of Trident will be delayed until October 2015 – after the next general election. This would allow the Liberal Democrats and their Conservative coalition partners to do battle over the future of the submarine nuclear missile system in the election campaign.
www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2010/sep/22/trident-decision-delay-expected-2015.
Britain’s “Mick Jagger election,” at which nobody got any satisfaction, was the topic of this joint BASIC event with the Center for Transatlantic Relations. The event took place at the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies, Johns Hopkins University, EU Center of Excellence in Washington, DC.
Reading the initial news chatter suggesting Des Browne is to be replaced at the Ministry of Defence with John Hutton, I am filled with dismay. Des Browne is famous within our arms control community for the speech he gave at the Conference on Disarmament earlier this year and referenced earlier in this blog, at which he proposed a technical disarmament conference of the P5. As a defense secretary Des has been uniquely sympathetic to the more holistic, global perspective, whilst also winning the support of the military (when initially they were suspicious).
During their All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) and BASIC organized-visit to Washington, DC, the Rt. Hon. Des Browne, MP (Labour), Dr. David Lidington, MP (Conservative), Tony Lloyd, MP (Labour), and Lord Hannay of Chiswick (Crossbench), shared their views on the vision of a world free of nuclear weapons and the prospects for success on nuclear disarmament and nonproliferation at this joint Carnegie Endowment for International Peace-BASIC event.
I have no doubt that the latest opinion poll published this evening by the Guardian reflects the significant media coverage that Trident replacement has seen recently, as well as the cracking of the ranks at the very top of all three principal parties around replacement. This is very encouraging for those looking for public interest in the recent discussions over moves towards a world free of nuclear weapons:
A large number of rebels within the Labour and opposition parties failed to defeat the proposals.
