Letter to The Guardian

Written by Baroness Sarah Ludford MEP and published in The Guardian (13th March 2007) on Tue 13th Mar 2007

Unfortunately your editorial fails to maximise the chances of persuading more MPs to vote in opposition to the decision to renew Trident.

Your claim that "in all but name it is a vote on the principle of nuclear weapons" will scare off non-unilateralists. And by relegating to an afterthought the point that "even MPs who accept nuclear weapons in principle should ask the government to delay and offer better evidence", you marginalise the strongest argument, which could rally all those who feel uneasy about the Blair legacy gesture. MPs should refuse to be bounced into a premature decision, just as they should have refused the "Blair bounce" into an illegal invasion of Iraq.

Yours sincerely,

Sarah Ludford