So far the difference between the Labour and the Conservative parties in the UK seemed marginal. The new Labour party leader, Jeremy Corbyn took a striking attitude opposing atomic weapons. Corbyn has been trying to infuse new thinking in the Labour party on such vital issues as nationalisation of industry and steering away from the US on foreign policy. He thinks that Britain should get rid of these weapons of mass destruction and scrap the Trident nuclear programme. Britain has been a nuclear power since the 1950s and both Labour and Conservative governments have consistently supported atomic weapons. Since the 1990s, the country’s nuclear deterrent has consisted of four Royal Navy submarines armed with Trident missiles. Corbyn wants the Trident issue debated at the next Labour party conference.
Labour Centrists senses that the party might face electoral oblivion under Corbyn. John Mc Ternan, a former aide to Prime Minister Tony Blair said that nuclear weapons were hugely supported by British voters. A unilateral approach to the issue would jeopardise Labour interests. It may also open a rift between Corbyn and Labour law makers who support nuclear weapons. The divide between pro and anti-nuclear forces had long been there in the Labour party since Prime Minister Clement Attlee made Britain the worlds’s third nuclear power. It is heartening that the British Parliament will decide next year the replacement of the Trident system which has made the UK subservient to the US. Britain does not really need nuclear weapons and scrapping them would be in sync with Conservative Prime Minister Davis Cameron’s cut in the Defence budget and policy of non intervention in global conflicts. But the persistence of cold war tensions clouds all thinking on a unilateral decision on an issue like nuclear power which is considered by many as vital to the national interests.
