Blog: Peace

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

The following motion on Greenpeace was lodged in the Scottish Parliament:

That the Parliament congratulates Greenpeace on its recent blockade of a Trident nuclear submarine at its base at Faslane; considers that Tony Blair is pushing through the replacement of Trident, an immoral, illegal and unnecessary weapon, against the wishes of the majority of the British people; acknowledges that its replacement will pose a threat to the security of the world, both by the possibility of it being used and by encouraging other countries to maintain or develop their own nuclear weapons, and calls on the Scottish Executive to stand up for the people of Scotland and the world and put pressure on Tony Blair to scrap the Trident replacement.

Twenty Ministry of Defence police stormed the ship and smashed their way onto the bridge of the Arctic Sunrise shortly after 5pm following the day-long stand-off. The police cut the anchor chain and towed the ship into the nuclear base. All onboard have been arrested for being in a restricted area.

Listen to the podcast update from our campaigners onboard about when happened during the boarding.

Wow. Well it's now 2.50pm and around seven hours after we set sail. We are still here, right up against the pontoons that surround the Faslane nuclear weapons base – and just some 150 metres away a Trident submarine is sitting there… I keep staring at it… It's a large beast but it's still weird to think that something of that size can carry enough nuclear missiles to wipe out hundreds of thousand of people at the touch of a button…

Writing from the Arctic Sunrise as it blockades Faslane, in protest against the government's plans to build new nuclear weapons.

Speedboats, inflatables, tugs, police boats – there's been mayhem in the Gareloch as volunteers scrambled to get to the pontoon that protects the Trident submarine. One person managed; he held up a banner from the pontoon reading NO NEW NUKES before being arrested.

Sixteen people have been arrested so far. All of our boats are now out of the water and the ship Arctic Sunrise is the only one left. We're still near the entrance to Faslane, and the waters around us are full of police and defence police vessels. You name it, they're out there. We’re being told that, if we come too close to the submarine, the ship will be boarded and taken. More updates soon.