Nick Clegg on Tories’ Trident announcement: “Some people are jumping the gun”
By Helen Duffett in Liberal Democrat Voice
Originally published by East Midlands Liberal Democrats
Nick Clegg has made it clear that the Coalition Agreement on the Trident nuclear programme will not be changed, despite Philip Hammond's announcement yesterday on a multimillion-pound contract for a new generation of nuclear missile submarines.
Speaking at a press conference this yesterday morning, Nick Clegg said:
Some people are jumping the gun on this Trident decision. The Coalition Agreement is crystal clear. It stands. It will not be changed. It will not be undermined. It will not be contradicted.
The final decision on the replacement of Trident will not be taken until 2016 - however much other people may not like it. What we need as a country is to have a considered, fact-based debate about what kind of deterrent we need in the future, and what kind of deterrent we can afford in the future.
Let's remember, the idea of a like-for-like, entirely unchanged replacement of Trident is basically saying that we will spend billions and billions and billions of pounds on a nuclear missile system designed with the sole strategic purpose of flattening Moscow at the press of a button. It seems entirely right that I have argued for years - my party has argued for years - that might not be necessarily the only viable or most affordable option for the future.