On the eve of the Scottish local elections peace campaigners have welcomed the restatement on BBC Radio 4’s Today Programme by First Minister Nicola Sturgeon of her vision of an independent Scotland free of nuclear weapons.
SCND Chair Lynn Jamieson said:
“While Scottish CND (along with many SNP members) opposes membership of NATO we take the view that the very first action of any “common security” alliance should be to ensure that they have a non-nuclear policy since the existence of these weapons is a prime threat existential threat to human and global security.
“It should also be stressed that the North Atlantic Treaty does not per se oblige Treaty members to possess or benefit from nuclear weapons.
“Governments across the globe agree with Nicola Sturgeon that a world with nuclear weapons is not a safer world.
“The brutal invasion of Ukraine has demonstrated that the possession of weapons of mass destruction allows an aggressor to act with relative impunity.
“We welcome the First Minister’s continued commitment to removing nuclear weapons from an independent Scotland and to joining the vast majority of states worldwide that want nothing to do with them and which support the UN Treaty on the Abolition of Nuclear Weapons.
“We also welcome her vision of a Scotland that will play a constructive part in international affairs.
“It is absolutely vital that we all resist the pressure of war fever and its human carriers to shift us from our principled and rational commitment to a peaceful world.”
