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posted by n1 on Monday July 25 2016, @09:59PM   Printer-friendly
from the mad-world dept.

Just prior to retiring, the UK's former Conservative Prime Minister David Cameron arranged for a parliamentary vote on whether the Trident nuclear-armed submarine programme should be renewed.

Labour Leader Jeremy Corbyn is opposed to nuclear weapons, having said "I do not believe the threat of mass murder is a legitimate way to go about international relations." However, some Labour MPs support Trident; Corbyn has made this a free vote.

The submarines operate out of a base at Faslane in Scotland. All the MPs belonging to the Scottish National Party, which advocates Scottish independence, are opposed to Trident. One asked the prime minister: "Is she personally prepared to authorise a nuclear strike that can kill a hundred thousand innocent men, women and children?” and her answer was:

Yes. And I have to say to the honourable gentleman the whole point of a deterrent is that our enemies need to know that we would be prepared to use it, unlike some suggestions that we could have a deterrent but not actually be willing to use it, which seem to come from the Labour party frontbench.

One Conservative MP who is opposed to Trident criticised his own party when he said "This is a political weapon aimed rather effectively at the Labour party."

The Guardian has a page with updates on the vote. It has the text of the motion and lists the number of parliamentary seats held by each party (links added by submitter):

Conservatives - 330
Labour - 230
SNP - 54
DUP - 8
Lib Dems - 8

The motion passed by 472 votes to 117. It seems likely that it had the support of nearly all Conservative MPs and a sizable fraction of Labour.


Original Submission

 
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  • (Score: 4, Funny) by Jeremiah Cornelius on Monday July 25 2016, @11:24PM

    by Jeremiah Cornelius (2785) on Monday July 25 2016, @11:24PM (#380096) Journal

    Well, they jolly well better find a way of home porting the lot in Bristol.

    Sane people in Scotland shall be headed towards their own "Brexit" from the UK. Alba shall be abandoning those Tory twats. Sassanach Saxons, the lot. Always were Germans, if you scrape down deep enough, all stiff knees and stiff arms. Goosestepping across history at the expense of real Britons, otherwise content with suet puddings and versifying.

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