Security by stalemate
Julian Lewis & John Woodcock
Three days after Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, the Russian dictator declared that his nuclear forces would be placed on “a special regime of combat duty,” implying an increased state of readiness to launch. Given the need for any nuclear deterrent to be ready to retaliate at short notice, this announcement was virtually devoid of meaning. Yet it serves to remind us of repeated campaigns—in the 1960s, 1980s and quite recently—to abandon the British deterrent, and the relief we should feel at successfully resisting them.
Our shared cause triumphed on 18th July 2016, when the House of Commons decided, by an overwhelming 355-vote majority, to replace fully the Royal Navy’s four ageing Trident submarines. It had been a long journey from the initial vote held on 14th March 2007 to begin the process. Then the majority was 248—itself an indication of very strong cross-party support for renewal. This continued to grow in the following parliament, despite David Cameron’s extraordinary concession of a four-year postponement of the final decision as part of his 2010 coalition deal with the anti-Trident Liberal Democrats.