Member News
By Bill Kidd MSP - 26th October 2010
Bill Kidd MSP writes for ePolitix.com ahead of his debate in the Scottish Parliament on making Scotland a nuclear weapons-free zone (NWFZ).
As the great majority of countries around the world look to ways to unburden themselves of the twentieth century legacy of nuclear weapons, some 'rogue states' such as Iran and North Korea and nations like India with pretensions to a place at the top table are seen to be riding in the opposite direction. Some, like the UK, cling to an idea of post imperialist importance through the maintenance of a costly and unsustainable nuclear programme under the guise of deterrence.
Scotland, of course, has long had a majority in opposition to the continued presence of the UK's nuclear arsenal being stationed at Faslane/Coulport on the River Clyde, but this has been ignored by successive Westminster governments of whichever stripe. The Scottish Parliament's vote in June 2007 by 72 votes to 16 against the replacement and continuation of Trident was predictably ignored by 'Big Brother' in the south as the minor irritation that allowing the Jocks to have their own soap-box would inevitably result in.
Therefore, following the example of other 'smaller' nations, such as New Zealand, along the route of popular sovereignty over the issues of nuclear non-proliferation and disarmament the proposal of 'NWFZ: Scotland' is an idea whose time has come.
The proposal for this movement grew out of an event I sponsored in Holyrood last month to celebrate the UN International Day of Peace, where senior figures in the disarmament movement spoke, amongst other concerns, of how nuclear weapons free zones were spreading around the world. From single-state NWFZ such as Mongolia to whole continents as with Central and South America and from nations who had harboured their own nuclear programmes such as South Africa to those closer to home such as some of those of our Western European neighbours who will soon see the removal of America's tactical nukes from their lands.
Marion Hobbs, New Zealand's former disarmament minister, spoke of the popular growth of NWFZ across the country in the 1990's, with homes; classrooms in schools, colleges and universities; shops; workplaces and industries; communities and towns all declaring themselves to be NWFZ until in 1997 the New Zealand Parliament declared the nation to be a nuclear weapon free zone.
The government wrote to the United Nations and declared itself a NWFZ, which wouldn't own nor allow nuclear weapons on its soil or allow nuclear powered vessels to visit its ports. Further that New Zealand wouldn't threaten other states with nuclear attack and asked that the nuclear weapons states recognise its position and not threaten the use of nukes against it.
Unlike New Zealand, Scotland isn't yet an independent member of the UN. However I have international lawyers examining the implications of an organic popular movement declaring their rights to claim Scotland as an NWFZ and for the consequent right of the majority of the Scottish people to demand the removal of nuclear weapons from our land and waters.
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