It was a sunny but cold morning as I drove
\ndown Gare Loch in Scotland last week towards the town of Helensburgh. I was on
\nmy way to visit the Peace Camp at Faslane where the UK\u2019s so-called independent
\nnuclear submarine fleet is based. <\/p>\n
Britain\u2019s nuclear armoury, which is
\nactually part of a NATO force largely under the control of the US, has suddenly
\nrocketed to the top of the political agenda with the arrival on the national
\nscene of the Scottish National Party\u2019s leader Nicola Sturgeon. Sturgeon\u2019s
\nsuccess in debating with the six other main UK party leaders on British
\ntelevision, the SNP\u2019s challenge against Labour in Scotland and the state of the
\npolls nationally mean that the prospect of a possible anti-Conservative
\nmajority in Westminster in the May 7 general election is putting Trident
\nsquarely in the centre of the election campaign.<\/p>\n
There were signs of spring along Gare
\nLoch, just north of the Firth of Clyde near Glasgow but the distant mountains
\nwere covered with snow after a week of unseasonally bitter weather. At the
\nPeace Camp, a small group were stoking a wood-burning stove to make tea as the
\nwelcome sunlight filtered through the still leafless trees.<\/p>\n
Faslane Peace Camp has occupied a site
\nnear HM Naval Base, Clyde, for thirty two years. A collection of brightly
\npainted caravans and buses linked by pathways, little gardens and communal
\nshelters where talks on non-violent direct action are given is tucked in
\namongst trees on a narrow strip of publicly owned land alongside the main road
\nleading to the base. The loch sparkles in the sunlight a few yards away \u2013 there
\nare occasional protests by
\nkayakers who take to the water to augment the regular blockades of the
\ngates of the base. \u00a0<\/p>\n
With the UK election only weeks away,
\nanti-Trident actions are increasing. Thousands attended a demonstration and
\nrally in Glasgow on April 4 and the next major
\nblockade at Faslane itself is planned for April 13.\u00a0 .\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
Until Conservative Defence Minister
\nMichael Fallon\u2019s article in
\nthe Times newspaper on April 9 making a personal attack on Labour leader Ed
\nMiliband over Trident, the issue of nuclear arms had largely gone unremarked in
\nthe rest of the UK. But in Scotland it has been a major plank of the SNP\u2019s
\nprogramme and played an important part in the independence referendum last September.
\nThere is a strong
\ncorrelation between support for independence and getting rid of Trident.
\nWhen Scotland voted 55%\/45% against independence, Faslane Peace Camp became a
\nrallying point for disappointed \u2018yes\u2019 voters. \u2018Lots of people came to the camp.
\nThey were very upset,\u2019 said Michael, 26, who lives locally and visits often.
\nElaine, a camp resident, told me: \u2018There\u2019s a strong link between voting for independence
\nand getting rid of Trident. Coming to the camp for a lot of people was like
\nsaying \u201cIt\u2019s not over\u201d.\u2019 <\/p>\n
Michael Fallon\u2019s intervention has ensured
\nthat for the first time in many years the issue of unilateral nuclear
\ndisarmament is a significant issue in a UK General Election. It is a rare
\nmoment. When Labour formed the government after the 1964 election with a
\nmajority of just four seats, unilateral disarmament had strong support within
\nthe party but Prime Minister Harold Wilson ignored it. Fifty years later, in
\n2015, the SNP is committed to scrapping the UK\u2019s fleet of submarines armed with
\nnuclear warheads, while Labour is pledged to renewing the fleet, although many
\nLabour voters and election candidates are opposed. A decision on the scope of the
\nreplacement has to be taken by Parliament next year.\u00a0 <\/p>\n
Fallon said Miliband was a \u2018backstabber\u2019
\nwho would sacrifice Trident for SNP support. The attack is more to do with the
\npossibility of a broader anti-Tory deal on economic and social policies between
\nLabour and the SNP after May 7 than the parties\u2019 stated positions on Trident,
\nor the likelihood of an actual coalition government between the two. Both
\nLabour and the SNP have said replacement and scrapping of Trident respectively
\nare \u2018red-lines\u2019
\nfor them at Westminster, and Ed Miliband has ruled out a coalition. But there
\nis plenty of room for deal-making on other policies in the case of a hung parliament.
\nIn an interview in March, Sturgeon implied
\nthat her party\u2019s support for certain other Labour policies in government would
\nnot hinge on a deal on Trident. <\/p>\n
The SNP\u2019s encroachments into Labour\u2019s Sturgeon\u2019s tactic is squarely in the The rapidly changing politics of Scotland Marion Bowman will be reporting from the International Women's League for Peace and Freedom's centenary Congress and Conference in the Hague, April 22-29. Read more articles addressing Women's Power to Stop War on openDemocracy 50.50 <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n Read 50.50's collection of articles on Towards nuclear non-proliferation <\/strong> \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" It was a sunny but cold morning as I drove down Gare Loch in Scotland last week towards the town of Helensburgh. I was on my way to visit the Peace Camp at Faslane where the UK\u2019s so-called independent nuclear submarine fleet is based. Britain\u2019s nuclear armoury, which is actually part of a NATO force…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1400","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1400","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1400"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1400\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1400"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1400"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1400"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nsocial justice territory have fuelled their support in Scotland as the Tory-led
\ncoalition government\u2019s public spending cuts have deepened. But in this UK-wide
\nelection it is Nicola Sturgeon\u2019s strategic anti-austerity message to Scotland\u2019s
\nanti-independence voters and voters outside Scotland that is of real interest.
\nAt every opportunity Sturgeon links the savings of up to \u00a3100bn from scrapping
\nTrident to alleviating child poverty. The April 4 demonstration in Glasgow was
\nheld under the banner \u2018Bairns (children) Not Bombs<\/em>\u2019 and Sturgeon\u2019s
\nscript for the various televised leaders\u2019 debates includes the line that Tory,
\nLabour and Liberal Democrat plans for more spending cuts will mean a million
\nmore children living in poverty by 2020.<\/p>\n
\ntradition of the women\u2019s peace movement, led by the Women\u2019s International
\nLeague for Peace and Freedom (WILPF),
\nof seeing disarmament holistically, linking peace work to the broader social
\naims of justice and equality. WILPF, founded
\nin 1915 in an attempt to stop the First World War, is convening a Congress
\nof members in The Hague, April 22-23, to debate and agree its new manifesto
\nfor the 21st century, renewing its call for, amongst other things,
\nmultilateral nuclear disarmament. The Congress is followed, April 27-29, by a
\nmajor international civil society
\nconference under the banner Women\u2019s Power to Stop War<\/em>, attended by
\n1,000 women from around the world. Sturgeon and the SNP\u2019s stance may well be
\nwelcome there, but an independent Scotland\u2019s unilateralism, while it continues
\nto be interested in membership of NATO, may raise some eyebrows.\u00a0 <\/p>\n
\nand the impact in the UK more widely are giving fresh momentum to peace
\ncampaigners. Sturgeon is not even a candidate to become a member of the UK
\nParliament but this is undoubtedly a critical moment in the long history of
\nnuclear disarmament and women\u2019s critical voice in the debate. For a woman to
\nactually be within reach of exercising power in the furtherance of even limited
\nanti-war goals, however constrained or contradictory her position might be, is
\nremarkable. <\/p>\n
<\/em><\/p>\n