Reading voters believe that the next government should cancel plans to build new nuclear weapons rather than cut public services, according to a street poll carried out by Berkshire Greenpeace.
A survey of shoppers carried out in Broad Street by the group showed that a large majority – 87% of those who answered the survey – want the next government to axe plans to spend £97 billion on replacing the Trident nuclear weapons system.
Trish Whitham, a local Greenpeace volunteer who organised the polling, said many people were shocked to find out that politicians are planning to waste such a massive amount of money on updating the UK’s arsenal of nuclear weapons.
“Both our local survey and national opinion polls show that the view of the public is clear. When faced with a massive national deficit the last thing they think the next government should be doing is wasting £97 billion on building new nuclear weapons”, she said.
“What people on the street care about is the security of essential services, like teaching for school children, care for older people, and health services at the Royal Berkshire Hospital.”
The results will now be handed to local candidates standing for election to Parliament for the Reading East and Reading West constituencies.
Berkshire Greenpeace will be asking the local election candidates to take the message back to their party leaders. ‘We want to show how little support there is in Reading for our money being thrown away on an outdated defence system that does not address modern security threats such as climate change or fundamentalism’, said Trish Whitham.
'After the election, the new government will be reviewing the UK’s defence strategy, and the plan for replacing Trident nuclear weapons must be considered as part of this review'
The poll of local shoppers was conducted in Broad Street, Reading on 21 March and 18 April 2010. Greenpeace volunteers asked each respondent the question: “Do you think the government should spend £97 billion on new nuclear weapons?”. 171 people out of a total of 195 polled said it was a bad idea, and the remaining 24 were in favour of the proposal.
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