AT last we have the long awaited result of the Government's Strategic Defence Review. This should be no surprise to those of us who were aware that the subject of nuclear weapons was going to be excluded from the main talks.

At this point I would like to give full credit to Parliamentary Labour CND comprising 43 back-benchers who, with the courage of their convictions, have given evidence which refutes the Government's statement that Trident will have cost the taxpayer a total of £12.5 million. I am pleased to say that one of these back-benchers was our MP for Bury North, David Chaytor.

Not only has David given his support in Parliament but he is giving support to this week's re-launching of a Bury CND group.

Leaving aside the obscenity of these weapons of mass destruction and their illegality, and forgetting the illogical contradiction between Trident's retention and the hypocritical condemnation of India and Pakistan, the financial burden is nevertheless horrendous at a time when we are told that we cannot afford a welfare state.

Excluded from the official estimates are £5 billion worth of construction at the Atomic Weapons Establishment; £300 million at Faslane and Coulport, and £500 million for the cost of developing the nuclear reactor for the propulsion plant for Trident. The true cost, excluding running and decommissioning, is in excess of £20 billion and rising. Ministers' claims that this is history, and that most of this money has been spent, is not true.

A 50 per cent reduction in warheads, far from being a minimum deterrent, could still destroy the world whilst maintenance of 24-hour patrols just perpetuates the myth that these obscenities defend in the first place.

JIM HOMEWOOD,

Prestwich and Whitefield CND.

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