Trident Vote Today

On Monday, one of our local members, Cathy Wattebot, was part of the Coventry Stop The War lobby to have Coventry Labour MPs say no to the renewal of Trident. She and others met with Geoffrey Robinson, Jim Cunningham and Bob Ainsworth. As Ainsworth is one of the deputy chief whips, Robinson and Cunningham were on-message.

The vote in Parliament on Trident is today. If enough Labour MPs rebel (one junior minister, and one parliamentary private secretary have already resigned over the issue), Labour will have to rely on the Tories to pass the measure.

On the eve of the vote, the Guardian reports that the government is secretly upgrading the capability of Trident.

Analysts said the device - called the Arming, Fusing and Firing (AF&F) system - would make the Trident system more effective because the weapons' power, impact and radioactive fallout could be changed depending on the target.

Joan Ruddock, a Labour MP and longtime opponent of nuclear weapons, said the discreet upgrading of the weapons system belied government claims.

"This is further evidence of enhancing the warfighting capability of Trident and gives the lie to the claim in the white paper that it is a matter of deterrence. Ministers want to maintain the myth that it is a matter of deterrence and they have no scenario to carry out warfighting."

Paul Ingram, senior analyst at BASIC (the British American Security Information Council), said: "The level and type of investment at Aldermaston of which this is a part indicates that Britain is looking to further upgrade its warheads for a variety of uses beyond simple deterrence."