Investigative journalist Rob Edwards, writing in the Guardian, has revealed how the Mininstry of Defence is spending over £2 billion on rebuilding the UK's nuclear weapons factory at Aldermaston at a time when pensions, services, and public spending are being cut.
Even though no decision has yet been taken on whether the UK should design and build a new warhead, construction work to pave the way for a new warhead has been underway at the Atomic Weapons Establishment in Berkshire since 2005.
Green Party MP Caroline Lucas, who forced the information on spending at AWE out of the Ministry of Defence through a Parliamentary Question, said the fact that the MoD signed off on these costs before a decision has even been made on replacing the Trident warhead "makes a complete mockery of the democratic process".
Rob has also published a redacted copy of the Trident Value For Money Review, obtained by Greenpeace under the Freedom of Information Act, on his webpage. The report shows that civil servants were able to find savings in the pampered nuclear warhead programme with relative ease, and reveals how ministers and their spin doctors presented a cut in warhead numbers which was forced upon them by the need to make savings as a contribution to global disarmament.
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