Some intriguing revelations about Trident in Rachel Sylvester’s column today:
“Behind the scenes … the Government is taking a long hard stare at the programme. It is estimated that the replacement will cost between £15 billion and £20billion, but with annual upkeep of £1.5 billion, the total over 30 years could rise above £65 billion. That’s an awful lot of schools and hospitals. As one minister put it, to get rid of Trident would be a ‘welcome relief on public spending’.
It won’t happen immediately but scrapping Britain’s nuclear deterrent is on the cards for the first time since Labour came to power…
…Although the official line remains that Britain will retain its nuclear capability, the language in Whitehall has changed. One minister says that Trident is more useful as a ‘tool for global disarmament than for UK defence’.
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