Bruce Kent Talk
Lancaster District Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) welcomed the famous peace activist Bruce Kent at the Friends Meeting House on Thursday 3rd December for a talk entitled “Abolishing War in the 21st Century”. Bruce is the honorary Vice President of CND and has been campaigning against nuclear weapons for the last 5 decades. His audience were inspired by his energy and optimism for the future.
CND is currently campaigning against a replacement for Trident nuclear weapons. As the next generation of submarines would be built at Barrow-In-Furness, this is very much a local issue. During his talk Bruce Kent said that “Trident is the obvious white elephant,” and that “there is no reason except cynicism, apathy and pessimism that we cannot move on nuclear weapons” with the aim for disarmament. During the talk he highlighted the huge cost of this military program, an estimated £76 billion. This is a shocking burden for the British tax-payer during a recession when cuts in public services are imminent. He said we must, “really appreciate what a hinge moment this is for the issue,” and urged people to write to their prospective Parliamentary candidates to determine their position before the next election.
More than 60 people attended the event, including the Lancaster and Fleetwood Green Party parliamentary candidate Gina Dowding, who expressed her support for CND's campaign against nuclear weapons. The evening was a great success, with an enthusiastic audience participating in the question-and-answer session following the talk.
Lancaster District CND is now looking forward to the 2010 General Election with the intent of challenging other parliamentary candidates during hustings on whether they oppose Trident replacement.
The top photo was taken by Daniel Tierney a photographer. He kindly provided it for use on our website and claims copyright for their distribution.