If you've been tuning in to the news recently you may have seen this:
Now some of you may be thinking, what is Trident? Trident is our nuclear deterrent. A Series of nuclear submarines that only the highest people in the MOD (ministry of defense) know their whereabouts of. The ships paddle around the UK under water making sure no one knows where they are. They rise to the surface very rarely and can supposedly go around the world 16 times. These ships are supposed to be protecting us, but from what?
It seems as though the government wants to spend excess money on things that aren't actually essential at this moment in time or anywhere in the near future. Unless WW3 breaks out any time, this is just another extravagant expenditure paid for by the taxpayer.
This is coming at a time where there are cuts left, right and centre. Problems in this country are rife and instead of trying to solve them the government chooses to spend the money to help keep their nuke system top notch.
I do agree that we need to be protected against threats, but this is like bringing a bazooka to a knife fight (Maybe someone in the government is using big nukes to make up for a lack elsewhere). The main "enemies" of the UK seem to be the likes of Al Qaeda and other extreme terrorist groups, not other countries. And last time I checked, they didn't have nuclear warheads or have the means to get any. Unless there is some underlying plot where they do get their hands on one and threaten to destroy the world wouldn't the current system we have in place be able to prevent that?
Although the initial bill was though to be £1bn it is thought that it could rise to at least £34bn with the extra costs included. Now that is a lot of money to be spending on something that is only meant to deter a nuclear attack on our country.
If you thought this idea was just recently introduced by our oh so popular coalition government then I'm afraid you're wrong. It actually started with the previous labour one and is continuing on through the current crop. It started in 06 so that's Tony Blair and continued onwards. It had opposition then and it still does now with the Lib Dems wanting an alternative system in place, not to mention the fact that it goes against the international nuclear disarmament agenda adopted by most of the world.
The supposed good points of the renewal are the 300 new jobs it's going to make (going to submarine or nuclear specialists who have to create the fleet) and apparently without replacing the system our nuclear industry would be severely damaged with 15'000 jobs being lost.
Overall though, I believe it's a serious waste of money and resources. The UK is already a messed up place with shootings, unemployment, and homelessness being some of our problems. Renewing our nuclear deterrent is only going to incite more violence in a bitter world and allow others to believe that we are a force to fear, not respect.
If you want to spend £1bn on anything, why not spend it on restoring this country to it's previous greatness and maybe fight against the enemy that is inequality because at the end of the day that is where the problems start.
It seems as though the government wants to spend excess money on things that aren't actually essential at this moment in time or anywhere in the near future. Unless WW3 breaks out any time, this is just another extravagant expenditure paid for by the taxpayer.
This is coming at a time where there are cuts left, right and centre. Problems in this country are rife and instead of trying to solve them the government chooses to spend the money to help keep their nuke system top notch.
I do agree that we need to be protected against threats, but this is like bringing a bazooka to a knife fight (Maybe someone in the government is using big nukes to make up for a lack elsewhere). The main "enemies" of the UK seem to be the likes of Al Qaeda and other extreme terrorist groups, not other countries. And last time I checked, they didn't have nuclear warheads or have the means to get any. Unless there is some underlying plot where they do get their hands on one and threaten to destroy the world wouldn't the current system we have in place be able to prevent that?
Although the initial bill was though to be £1bn it is thought that it could rise to at least £34bn with the extra costs included. Now that is a lot of money to be spending on something that is only meant to deter a nuclear attack on our country.
If you thought this idea was just recently introduced by our oh so popular coalition government then I'm afraid you're wrong. It actually started with the previous labour one and is continuing on through the current crop. It started in 06 so that's Tony Blair and continued onwards. It had opposition then and it still does now with the Lib Dems wanting an alternative system in place, not to mention the fact that it goes against the international nuclear disarmament agenda adopted by most of the world.
The supposed good points of the renewal are the 300 new jobs it's going to make (going to submarine or nuclear specialists who have to create the fleet) and apparently without replacing the system our nuclear industry would be severely damaged with 15'000 jobs being lost.
Overall though, I believe it's a serious waste of money and resources. The UK is already a messed up place with shootings, unemployment, and homelessness being some of our problems. Renewing our nuclear deterrent is only going to incite more violence in a bitter world and allow others to believe that we are a force to fear, not respect.
If you want to spend £1bn on anything, why not spend it on restoring this country to it's previous greatness and maybe fight against the enemy that is inequality because at the end of the day that is where the problems start.
Sources:
http://www.naval-technology.com/news/newsuk-mod-unveil-1bn-trident-replacement-contract
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/4805768.stm
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2012/jun/17/coalition-split-trident-nuclear-submarines-replacement
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/defence-and-security-blog/2012/jun/22/trident-nuclear-weapons?newsfeed=true
