Upping the ante

Part of the Trident: we don't buy it tour blog



MSPs with John Sauven, Greenpeace's Executive Director, and the van of shame (and name). © Greenpeace/Cobbing

I'm a volunteer on board our ship, the Arctic Sunrise, which today joined the mounting resistance to the government's plans for new nuclear weapons. For over twenty years, there's been a permanent protest camp outside Faslane - the homeport to Trident. That base has also been the site of regular direct actions by Trident Ploughshares activists.

In the past few years, I joined the hundreds who have been arrested numerous times there; lying in the gateways and swimming in front of subs, trying to highlight Britain's flagrant breaches of international law. In recent months Trident Ploughshares has been joined by an audacious project of civil disobedience, Faslane 365, which is holding blockades and demonstrations at the base every single day for a year! With our ship, we've come to up the ante further.

Twenty-seven Scottish Labour MPs either support new nukes, or haven't said how they'll vote when the issue comes before parliament in just a few weeks time. It's time we made them listen to the overwhelming opposition from the people they're supposed to represent. People don't want billions spent on unnecessary and dangerous bombs, especially when funds are so urgently needed to tackle climate change.

As the Sunrise sets sail for Greenock, and then London, in time for the crucial vote in Westminster, I'll be with a van carrying a billboard that names and shames those 27 Labour MPs. We'll tour their constituencies and let the voters know what's being done in their names.

Today, Alistair Darling. Tomorrow..?