SNP MSP for Glasgow and anti-trident campaigner Bill Kidd has welcomed remarks made by the former deputy commander-in-chief of UK land forces, General Sir Hugh Beach that the UK's Trident missile system is no use and that no more money should be wasted on it.

The remarks made at a conference in Glasgow yesterday and reported in the Sunday Herald follow a previous intervention by a group of retired senior military officers, who branded the Trident system “completely useless” and challenged the renewal of the nuclear deterrent.

Commenting Mr Kidd said: "With the debate about government spending raging and cuts being imposed from Westminster, this is a timely intervention which lays bear the incoherence of Labour’s spending plans.

"On the one hand they are demanding the Scottish Government cut £500 million from public services whilst on the other they appear determined to keep on wasting millions on a weapon of mass destruction that former high ranking UK officers view as a waste of money.

"Trident is frankly obscene, and in the current economic climate it must be obvious that these resources should be better spent.

"To build a "son of Trident" would be an act of immense irresponsibility by Gordon Brown. Particularly when he is demanding cuts in public services and supposedly backing President Obama’s call for nuclear disarmament.

"There is a clear choice between the SNP Government’s proposals to save £25 billion by scrapping Labour plans to replace the Trident nuclear missile system with its estimated £100 billion lifetime costs and the UK Government’s to savagely cut spending on health and education.

"The Scottish Government are also calling on the Labour Government  at Westminster to abandon it’s ill-thought out plans for ID cards, which would save a further five billion pounds.  Even Labour’s former UK cabinet minister Stephen Byers has called for Trident and ID cards to be abandoned.

"And it is not just defence chiefs that think the UK Government is wrong to spend a fortune on replacing Trident, it is a view shared by governments around the world, the people of Scotland and the Scottish Parliament.

"Civil society, trade unions, religious organisations and the Scottish Government are working together to keep a new generation of trident missiles out of Scotland's shores and the voice of the former defence chiefs only adds to that argument."

Notes:

1. The reports on Sir Hugh Beach’s remarks can be read here.

2. The previous intervention by a group of retired senior military officers, who branded the Trident system “completely useless”, can be read here.

3. Opposition to Trident

• At Westminster on 14th March 2007 33 of Scotland's MPs voted against Trident with only 22 for.
• In the Scottish Parliament on 14th June 2007 71 MSPs voted against Trident with only 16 for.
• Consistent polling has shown a majority of the Scottish public are against Trident.