Trident is evil and against God, bishops warn Blair

Nineteen Bishops have written to Tony Blair saying that the possession of Trident missiles is "evil" and "profoundly anti-God".

However, I doubt if their intervention will have any effect on Blair, a known churchgoer, who nevertheless defied the direct intervention of the Pope in order to invade Iraq.

In the Bishop's letter, published in today's Independent newspaper, the Bishops state:

"Trident and other nuclear arsenals threaten long-term and fatal damage to the global environment and its people. As such, their end is evil and both possession and use profoundly anti-God acts."

The signatories to the letter include the Rt Rev Peter Price, the Bishop of Bath and Wells; Dr David James, the Bishop of Bradford; Jack Nicholls, the Bishop of Sheffield; and Colin Bennetts, the Bishop of Coventry.

Blair is facing mounting unrest amongst his backbenchers over his controversial decision to renew the Trident weapons system.

However, the religious argument against their use seems to me to be slightly weaker than the moral argument vis a vis our stance against Iran and our commitments under the Nuclear non Proliferation Treaty.

Micheal Meacher, the former environment minister said:

"It is essential that a decision of this magnitude be taken with a debate in Parliament.

"I support the arguments by the bishops but I would add to them - it is not an independent nuclear deterrent because if the Americans don't approve it, we cannot use it; and on non-proliferation grounds - it is impossible to say to countries like Iran you should not have nuclear weapons but we must have ours."

Again, we come back the essential hypocrisy of our position. Stating that we are somehow civilised enough to possess weaponry that we deny the use of to others.

Some Labour backbenchers, most notably Claire Short, have withdrawn support from Gordon Brown since he stated that he too, if made Prime Minister, would retain Britain's nuclear capability.

New Labour still relies on Old Labour for it's cohesion. It would be foolish for Blair and Brown to forget that Old Labour identified itself for many years by a principled demand for nuclear disarmament.

If either man thinks they can recommission Trident without a bitter feud, then they fundamentally misunderstand the party that they are leading.

Indeed, with the US putting pressure on Iran to desist from nuclear development, the moral strength of Old Labour's argument has never been stronger.

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Tags: Trident, Brown, Blair, Nuclear non-Proliferation Treaty, NNPT, Bishops,