Gordon Brown on WMD

Power corrodes the mind?

 

1984

Brown is on record as declaring that ‘[Trident is] unacceptably expensive, economically wasteful, and militarily unsound.’  (Trident, Official report 19th June, 1984, Vol 62, c.188)

 

2006

  1. In a Mansion House speech Brown showed his sense of ‘national purpose’ by ‘protecting security’ which involved ‘retaining our independent nuclear deterrent’.
  2. In conversation with Cardinal O’Brien, Archbishop of St Andrews and Edinburgh.  After a fairly long discussion with the anti-nuclear Archbishop, Brown eventually said. ‘We will have to agree to differ’.

 

With the change of security focus to terrorism and the looming problem of climate change, the case for getting rid of Britain’s expensive, irrelevant and distracting weapon of mass destruction is even stronger now than in 1984.  Though nukes are more ‘militarily unsound’ than ever, Brown has changed his mind.  He ought to explain why he now considers nuclear weapons as reasonably inexpensive, economically productive, and militarily sound.