Also by louise

Greetings from a bustling Liberal Democrat party conference in Liverpool! Team Trident (aka Simon, Zoe and me) are here to talk to people about one of the big issues of the day – whether or not the coalition government proceeds with hugely expensive plans for a new generation of nuclear weapons in the midst of the biggest cuts to public spending in living memory.

As debate rages here in the UK about the financial cost of building a replacement for the Trident nuclear weapons system, it's timely to reflect on the impact of the nuclear bombing of Hiroshima which happened 65 years ago today. Bear in mind that just one of the 48 nuclear warheads carried by a UK Trident submarine has approximately eight times the destructive power of the atomic bomb that destroyed Hiroshima.

Over the last six weeks Greenpeace campaigners and active supporters have been energetically campaigning to raise the level of debate about proposals to spend £97bn on new nuclear weapons.

Together we’ve been lobbying candidates, writing to newspapers, polling people on the streets and doing much, much more behind the scenes - helping to make nuclear weapons an election issue for the first time in decades.

Ever since the economy, and public sector investment, hit the buffers in late 2008, our call for government to invest heavily in new clean energy industries has become more important. What's needed is a Green New Deal - a strong green stimulus combined with an active industrial strategy - to create thousands of skilled jobs, secure energy supplies and secure Britain's place in the global clean energy race.

And it's an idea that's very popular with the electorate. A new poll by YouGov for Greenpeace shows a 65% of people demanding increased government investment in new clean energy industries. That figure rises to over 70% in the North East, where many of the jobs would be based.

But will we get it?