Bromley Borough CND News

Dr Marian Messmer Senior Research Fellow, International Security Programme The primary function of nuclear weapons is to deter war – and specifically nuclear war – between nuclear adversaries. But the Cold War was a different environment to today’s complex security environment, in which most nuclear-armed states have more than one nuclear competitor to deter, and many non-nuclear weapons states possess significant non-nuclear military capabilities. Read article by clicking HERE

“Just weeks after the dust has settled on a budget that did nothing to address the real problems that we face, the government has made yet more public money available for Britain’s nuclear weapons industry and is unusually linking nuclear power and nuclear weapons in the same breath. It’s good that the prime minister is owning up to the linkage, but the suggestion that they are needed for both national and energy security is a complete fallacy. “As the long-delayed Hinkley Point C shows, nuclear power is neither a timely nor cost effective way of generating electricity. It is extremely cynical of the government to use a genuine issue like energy security to greenwash nuclear power and nuclear weapons. The additional funding pumped into these will inevitably find its way into the pockets of investors through government contracts financed by the public.” Read statement by clicking HERE

Minister “pays tribute” to test survivors, but will not provide requested information or financial compensation. “The UK Government has no plans to respond to the joint statement made by Kiribati and Kazakhstan, as their statement is inconsistent with the UK's position on the legacy of nuclear tests. However, we recognise efforts to address the impact of historic nuclear testing and pay tribute to the veterans and civilians from the Pacific region involved in the tests. The UK has reviewed residual contamination relating to British nuclear tests on Kiribati and concluded that any required remediation had been undertaken.” Read this article by clicking HERE

British military aircraft regularly carry highly radioactive material across the Atlantic to one of the RAF’s largest bases on flights vital to the Trident nuclear weapons system, according to new research, Declassified UK can reveal. The little-known flights are a lifeline sustaining the ‘special relationship’ embodied in the secretive US-UK Mutual Defence Agreement due to be renewed later this year without the need for any parliamentary scrutiny or even approval. At least ten of the special round trips between RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire and US military bases, usually by large RAF C-17 Globemaster transport aircraft, take place every year, according to Nukewatch, which monitors traffic in nuclear weapons and their components. In a joint report with Nukewatch, the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) told Declassified: “The UK cannot claim to have an independent nuclear weapons system when it is so reliant on the US for technical information and nuclear materials, including

BAN 2023 Created by Ann Garrett, Edited by Rob Clark Up Coming Events April 26th - Chernobyl Day stall and vigil - Bromley Market Square 12 00 - 3pm August 3rd - Hiroshima Vigil - opposite the Churchill Theatre 12 - 3pm - poems and statements Sept 21st - Peace One Day event at Bromley Friends Meeting House 7 -10pm . Stalls, speaker, films, poetry and music. November 10th - White Poppy Ceremony 10.30 - 11.00 a.m. at Bromley War Memorial [SE London Peace, Justice and Solidarity Network] speeches, poems and music. 1st Thursday of every month - Close Guantanamo demo outside parliament - 3pm. All Guantanamo events TBC. Zoom meetings take place each month. Every Saturday at 12noon. Free Julian Assange - vigils at Belmarsh .NTAG/Kick Nuclear meetings at 162 Holloway Road 7pm or on Zoom. To view the 2023 newsletter click HERE

The detonation of a plutonium implosion device aboard a Royal Navy ship in the Montebello Islands off Western Australia, dubbed Operation Hurricane, made Britain the world’s third nuclear-armed nation, after the United States and Russia. Veterans groups say about 22,000 UK military personnel were involved in British and American tests in the 1950s and 60s, many of them conscripts doing postwar national service. READ MORE