Trident Missile Renewal Rejected by Annual Conference of Christian Peoples Alliance

'Meeting this weekend at their Annual Conference and AGM, activists with
the Christian Peoples Alliance party agreed to oppose the extension of the
Trident missile system, which forms the basis of Britain's nuclear policy.
The missiles must be replaced sometime between 2025 and 2030.

Supporting a resolution proposed by members of the Kingston & Surbiton
branch of the party, the rally for Christian Democrats in Britain decided
that not only are such weapons immoral, the estimated £20 billion cost of
Trident's renewal could not be justified. (See below for full text of resolution:
A Secure World.)

Joint proposer, Tony May, who works in public health policy, said:

"To approve the use of nuclear weapons or to hold them in reserve is a
form of blasphemy against God. It is a kind of idolatry. Like all idols,
our weapons research programme, testing, maintenance and delivery
mechanisms require continual payment. The Christian Peoples Alliance is
saying we refuse to worship this false god and we choose to support
investment in pursuing justice and tackling poverty, which cause much of
global instability."

Britain's nuclear weapons system is made up of four nuclear submarines.
Each sub carries up to 16 missiles on board and each missile carries three
nuclear bombs (warheads) on top. Each of these bombs is around eight times
as destructive as the bomb which flattened Hiroshima in 1945, killing over
140,000 civilians. One Trident submarine patrols the seas at all times.

In other developments at the Conference, members agreed a policy to seek
deep reforms of the international financial system, involving monetary
reform with the end of fractional reserve banking and the separation in Britain
of speculative investment banking from High Street banking. They also heard
from party Leader, Cllr Alan Craig and a message of greeting from a
representative of the African Christian Democratic Party, Keith Downs.


For more information: Tony May 07873 625396 or email press@cpaparty.org

Resolution to CPA AGM 2009
A Secure World

As Christian Democrats our commitment and expectations are rooted in a
vision of society which embodies the kingdom and goes beyond party
politics. Ours is a politics of peacemaking justice. Our understanding of
security is based on the view that all people are our neighbours, made in
the image of God. We reject the model of security that rests on
pre-emptive military intervention, the strength of arms - conventional and
nuclear - and the demonisation of the other. We seek a model of security
that puts life, justice and respect at its heart. Scripture tells us that
real security does not come from weaponry but from justice. "Integrity
will bring peace, justice give everlasting security" (Is 32:17). To be a
nation that is known for providing real security in the world, to be a
nation that truly defends the poor and needy, the CPA pledges to do all
that we can to bring peace and justice to the world.

The Christian Peoples Alliance agrees with the Archbishop of Canterbury,
Dr Rowan Williams, in his comments this year in Japan that "To plan a
strategy around such weapons is to be defeated by them." And we stand by
the verdict of Vatican II forty years ago that "Any act of war aimed
indiscriminately at the destruction of entire cities or of extensive areas
along with their population is a crime against God and man himself."

1. The CPA will therefore expose the link between issues of security,
poverty and injustice and will redirect resources and research away from
military-based policies that take us to war and cause untold suffering
towards policies that work for the elimination of poverty and the
protection of the environment as a means of creating true human security.

2. We recognise that a nuclear weapons free world must be achieved
carefully and in a step by step manner. We are convinced of its
technological feasibility. Lack of political will, especially on the part
of the nuclear weapons states, is the only true barrier. As chemical and
biological weapons are prohibited, so must nuclear weapons be prohibited.

3. The nuclear weapons states have failed to disarm, while other countries
have harboured nuclear ambitions. The UK has a stated commitment to
nuclear disarmament, yet retains four armed and operational Trident
nuclear weapons submarines and describes these as 'the ultimate guarantor
of the UK's national security'. The CPA therefore pledges to work for
unilateral disarmament by the UK and to remove all reliance on nuclear
weapons owned by other states. We therefore oppose replacement of Trident.
We also agree with the leaders of the Baptist, United Reformed and
Methodist churches in describing Gordon Brown's plans to move from four to
three boats a "feeble and ineffective gesture" that do not reduce the
number of warheads.

4. The CPA calls upon all states -- particularly the nuclear weapons
states, declared and de facto -- to take the following steps to achieve
nuclear weapons abolition. We further urge the states parties to the NPT
to demand binding commitments by the declared nuclear weapons states to
implement these measures:

Pursue negotiations on a nuclear weapons abolition convention that
requires the phased elimination of all nuclear weapons within a time-bound
framework, with provisions for effective verification and enforcement.

Immediately make an unconditional pledge not to use or threaten to use
nuclear weapons.

Rapidly complete a truly Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty with a zero
threshold and with the stated purpose of precluding nuclear weapons
development by all states.

Establish a body to deal with nuclear disarmament.

Place a moratorium on all nuclear explosions before the Treaty comes into
force.

Cease to produce and deploy new and additional nuclear weapons systems,
and commence to withdraw and disable deployed nuclear weapons systems.

Prohibit the military and commercial production and reprocessing of all
weapons-usable radioactive materials.

Subject all weapons-usable radioactive materials and nuclear facilities in
all states to international accounting, monitoring, and safeguards, and
establish a public international registry of all weapons-usable
radioactive materials.

Prohibit nuclear weapons research, design, development, and testing
through laboratory experiments including but not limited to non-nuclear
hydrodynamic explosions and computer simulations, subject all nuclear
weapons laboratories to international monitoring, and close all nuclear
test sites.

Create additional nuclear weapons free zones.

Recognise and declare the illegality of threat or use of nuclear weapons,
publicly and before the World Court.

Create mechanisms to ensure the participation of citizens and NGOs in
planning and monitoring the process of nuclear weapons abolition.

A world free of nuclear weapons is a shared aspiration of humanity. This
goal cannot be achieved in a non-proliferation regime that authorises the
possession of nuclear weapons by a small group of states. Our common
security requires the complete elimination of nuclear weapons. Our
objective is definite and unconditional abolition of nuclear weapons.

The convention should mandate irreversible disarmament measures, including
but not limited to the following:
withdraw and disable all deployed nuclear weapons systems; disable and
dismantle warheads; place warheads and weapons-usable radioactive
materials under international safeguards; destroy ballistic missiles and
other delivery systems.

The convention could also incorporate the measures listed above which
should be implemented independently without delay. When fully implemented,
the convention would replace the NPT.'

I left before the debate. If present I would have said that I felt about this motion like the man who said he would vote for his religion's party unless he thought they were about to gain power. I believe that MAD kept the peace in the cold war. Nations need arms to keep the peace. But for economic reasons I do not favour replacing Trident.