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To Nuke Or Not To Nuke
The future of Britain's strategic nuclear submarine-based deterrent remains upon what Chancellor Gordon Brown said in his annual Mansion House speech.
He said Britain must be "strong in defence in fighting terrorism, upholding NATO, supporting our armed forces at home and abroad and retaining our nuclear deterrent."
The British government's White Paper on Trident - the UK's nuclear power force - is just a white paper.
There are no conclusions in this parliamentary proposal. At the end of the day it is for the prime minister and cabinet to decide.
If a decision is made by this cabinet, or the next, to spend an unspecified billions of pounds on a new generation of nuclear weapon power, which current defence estimates conclude that a new 'son of Trident' could last for the next 50 years, the so-called defence 'experts' may be right. But, 'experts' are not always right.
But, if the cabinet, which must make a choice very soon, decides that an estimated fifty billion pounds could be spent in another fashion, then, the United Kingdom will be no longer a nuclear power.
