Let Battle Commence

Let battle commence for national pride and independence. “Our” nuclear weapons programme has only ever represented the wholesale subjugation of Britain’s defence capability to a foreign power. That power maintains no less friendly relations with numerous other countries, almost none of which have nuclear weapons.

Let battle commence against Weapons of Mass Destruction. Like radiological, chemical and biological weapons, nuclear weapons are morally repugnant simply in themselves, as any political tradition with Christian roots (including, that is, all three of ours) must necessarily acknowledge.

Let battle commence against terrorism. Nuclear weapons offer not the slightest defence, either against the “dissident” Irish Republicans who really do exist, or against any range of loosely knit, if at all connected, terrorist organisations pursuing a range of loosely knit, if at all connected, aims in relation to a range of countries while actually governing no state. Where would any such organisation keep nuclear weapons in the first place?

Let battle commence against the impression that Britain wishes to “play with the big boys”, an impression which contributes significantly to making Britain a target for the terrorist activity against which nuclear weapons are defensively useless. It is high time for Britain to grow up. Britain’s permanent seat on the UN Security Council could not be taken away without British consent, and so does not depend in any way on her possession of nuclear weapons; on the contrary, the world needs and deserves a non-nuclear permanent member of that Council.

Let battle commence for a realistic definition of security. Most European countries do not have nuclear weapons, and nor does Canada, Australia or New Zealand. Are these therefore in greater danger? On the contrary, the London bombings of 7th July 2005 were attacks on a country with nuclear weapons, while the attacks of 11th September 2001 were against the country with by far the largest nuclear arsenal in the world. The only “nuclear power” in the Middle East is Israel. Is Israel the most secure state in the Middle East? It is mind-boggling to hear people go on about Iran, whose President is in any case many years away from acquiring a nuclear weapon, and in any case only wants one (if he does) to use against the only Middle Eastern country that already has them. What does any of this have to do with us?

Let battle commence for historic Toryism. Numerous Tories with relevant experience – Anthony Head, Peter Thorneycroft, Nigel Birch, Aubrey Jones – were sceptical about, or downright hostile towards, British nuclear weapons in the Fifties and Sixties. In March 1964, while First Lord of the Admiralty and thus responsible for Polaris, George Jellicoe suggested that Britain might pool her nuclear deterrent with the rest of NATO. Enoch Powell denounced the whole thing as not just anything but independent in practice, but also immoral in principle. The rural populist John G Diefenbaker, who opposed official bilingualism in Canada’s English-speaking provinces, and who campaigned for his flag to remain the Canadian Red Ensign with the Union Flag in its corner, also kept JFK’s nukes off Canadian soil.

Let battle commence for the historic Labour opposition to Marxist infiltration. Gaitskell’s Campaign for Democratic Socialism explicitly supported the unilateral renunciation of Britain’s nuclear weapons, and the document Policy for Peace, on which Gaitskell eventually won his battle at the 1961 Labour Conference, stated: “Britain should cease the attempt to remain an independent nuclear power, since that neither strengthens the alliance, nor is it now a sensible use of our limited resources.”

Let battle commence against the costliest and most ineffective example of the “Big State”, namely nuclear weapons in general and Trident in particular. Diverting enormous sums of money towards public services, towards the relief of poverty at home and abroad, and towards paying off our national debt, precisely by reasserting control over our own defence capability, would represent a most significant step towards One Nation politics, with an equal emphasis on the One and on the Nation. It is what Disraeli would have done.

And let battle commence to save the British Army, the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force from Liam Fox and his ilk, who wish to “merge” them into a single part of a single EU defence “capability” under overall American command, a command itself directed by essentially rogue and indeed treasonable elements in the United States, wholly indifferent to the constitutional position of the President as Commander-in-Chief if they happen to disapprove of the President in question.

Let battle commence.