The military emissions problem Every sector of human activity is subject to carbon reporting and reduction targets, with one, single exception - the global military

We campaign for a progressive increase in the amount of UK tax spent on peace building, and a corresponding decrease in the amount spent on war and preparation for war.

There is a way you can withhold tax using a TRUST, which is exactly how many MPs and oligarchs avoid tax.

The Arms Trade thrives on proxy wars.

Many refugees are fleeing from armed conflict. If our MP Sally-Ann Hart really wants to reduce the number of asylum seekers coming to Britain, she could start by campaigning against the arms trade.

The arms trade rewards the Rich and Powerful.

The arms trade hurts the Poor and the Weak.

It is not easy to establish where the arms used in conflicts have originated. However, the use of UK arms in conflict zones includes the use:

by Saudi Arabia in Yemen

by Saddam Hussein in Iraq against Iran, (and subsequently against British troops in Iraq)

by Israel in attacks on Gaza

by Gaddafi's Libya against "rebels" in 2011

by the Indonesian military in East Timor, Aceh and West Papua. (Recall Hastings' Andrea Needham's brave stand against this trade).

by Zimbabwe in the Democratic Republic of Congo

by Argentina in the Falklands War (again against British troops)

In the 2021 Defence Review -

Army troops have been cut by 10,000, and there will be possible cuts to infantry fighting vehicles and tanks. However, military spending will increase by 24 billion pounds over 4 years.

There will be new funding for high tech warfare including armed drones.

Trident nuclear warheads will be increased from 180 to 260.

There will also be 6.6 billion pounds for military research and development over the next 4 years, including a new artificial intelligence centre and a new RAF space command.

76m pounds for a National Cyber Force, the first unit dedicated to offensive acts against enemies.

Foreign aid will be cut by some 4 billion pounds, including cuts to vital health research and tackling corruption in developing countries, and cuts as high as 90 per cent in some conflict zones.

The Defence and Security Equipment International (DSEI), is a major arms fair run every two years by the Defence and Security Organisation, part of the UK Department of Trade and Investment. It returned to the Excel Centre in East London on 14th-17th September 2021. Supporters of Hastings against War were there to protest.

We also helped to obstruct the delivery of military equipment to DSEI in 2015, in 2017, and in 2019. Click here for an account of the 2019 arms fair.

The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, has called for an end to DSEI.

Eight activists arrested for resisting DSEI in 2015 were found Not Guilty on the grounds that they were seeking to prevent a greater crime.

In June 2021 the Supreme Court quashed the conviction of four protesters for blocking an approach road to the DSEI arms fair in 2017.

In June 2018 the UK Court of Appeal ruled that the export of fighter jets, missiles and bombs made in the UK, for use in Yemen, was illegal.

This was not the end. The Government did not accept the verdict and was granted permission to take the case to the Supreme Court - at the taxpayers' expense. Meanwhile the Government has announced its decision to continue licensing arms sales to Saudi Arabia for use in Yemen.

They acknowledge that there have been hundreds of concerning incidents, including the bombing of homes, schools, hospitals and markets, killing thousands of civilians. Yet they have now decided that these are only "isolated incidents" and resumed licensing arms to Saudi Arabia for use in the war in Yemen.

This war has been responsible for the world's worst humanitarian crisis. More than 24 million people need urgent assistance. Now the people of Yemen are facing the challenge of coronavirus, with 1 million cases predicted in a country where the health system is on the brink of collapse, making it extremely difficult for humanitarian workers and local communities to save lives.

The UK Government championed earlier peace talks and is sending generous amounts of aid to help people in need. However, continued arms sales are fuelling the war and destroying chances of peace.

General Dynamics plants in the UK are concentrated in areas of high unemployment - Hastings, Caerphilly, Chippenham and Merthyr Tydfil - where workers can be readily dismissed and replaced.

About twenty years ago General Dynamics bought a Hastings company, Computing Devices Hastings Ltd, founded by William Charles Uttley-Moore. Uttley-Moore was briefly retained as CEO, but was soon replaced.

The Hastings firm had been involved in the development of the Direct Voice Input (DVI) System for the Eurofighter/Typhoon. This was the earliest DVI unit in production for a military cockpit. It provided voice control over dozens of aircraft controls.

According to the General Dynamics website, their Hastings site now provides avionic systems for the Eurofighter Typhoon, Tornado, AgustaWestland AW101 Mk 3 and Mk4 and AW159 Wildcat (Future Lynx) platforms, and tactical communications equipment for ground vehicles.

The nuclear litany goes like this -

Pakistan must have a nuclear bomb because India has a bomb

India must have a bomb because China has a bomb

China must have a bomb because America and Russia have bombs

Russia must have a bomb because America has a bomb.

You can equally repeat this incantation in reverse -

America must have a bomb because Russia and China have bombs

China must have a bomb because India now has a bomb

India must have a bomb because Pakistan now has a bomb

Finally pariah states - North Korea, Iran and Israel - believe they too need nuclear weapons because they understandably feel threatened.

Trident adds nothing to our security.

One pretext on which Britain might possibly use Trident is to give legitimacy to a US nuclear attack by participating in it, (just as Tony Blair legitimised George Bush's invasion of Iraq). In a crisis the very existence of our Trident might make it harder for a UK prime minister to refuse to take part.

The truth is that Trident is not an independent deterrent. Essential components are leased from the US. UK Trident submarines have to return their missiles regularly to the US for maintenance. Note the danger of transporting nuclear components by road.

Britain is no longer forced to be part of the Nuclear Chain. We would be safer without Trident. Its principal role now is to secure our seat at the Top Table.

The alternative would be to scrap Trident, rethink the nature of "security", and place Britain at the head of the non-nuclear powers - the majority of the countries in the world.

The 2021 Defence Review said the UK would increase its nuclear arsenal by 40 per cent, to 260 warheads. The UK had previously undertaken to cut its stockpile to 180 warheads by the mid-2020s. The UK remains a signatory of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), Article 6 of which commits countries to "pursue negotiations in good faith on effective measures relating to cessation of the nuclear arms race at an early date and to nuclear disarmament".

Worse still the Review also reserves the right of the UK to withdraw previous assurances that it will not use nuclear weapons against a non-nuclear armed state. This contradicts the undertaking by nuclear-armed states that they will never use nuclear weapons on a non-nuclear state, and could well encourage a rogue state to build its own arsenal.

All this is happening while most other nations are endorsing the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW).

The Government has announced that production of the fourth Astute-class submarine HMS Audacious is nearly 17 months behind schedule, a delay that impacts on the timetable for building the Dreadnought-class submarines, which are scheduled to carry the UK's nuclear weapons system. HMS Audacious was due to be handed over to the Navy in August 2019 but, due to a fault, handover was postponed to 2021. Astute-class submarines are nuclear-powered but conventionally armed.

The immediate consequence of the current delay will be that the Trafalgar-class submarine which HMS Audacious was due to replace, HMS Trenchant, is likely to have its service life extended further than originally planned, meaning greater maintenance costs. There are delays to the next Astute-class submarine, due to be built in the space vacated by HMS Audacious, and to the third Dreadnought-class submarine, which will be built in the same space afterwards. The government no longer publishes in-service dates for the Dreadnought submarines, but it has been suggested that the MoD may struggle to keep the current nuclear-armed submarines at sea in the early 2030s, particularly if there are delays in building their successors.

This is only the latest in a series of delays and issues for replacing Trident, Britain's nuclear weapons system, casting further doubt on the viability of the programme.

"British Values" - Freedom, Democracy and the Rule of Law - are not preserved or promoted by Trident. UK nuclear weapons have more fire-power than all the munitions used in World War II. They have the capacity to kill tens of millions of people and trigger catastrophic climate change.

At a time of financial austerity, who needs Trident? There are better ways to spend 200 bn pounds!

Explore the decision flow-chart on the morality of nuclear weapons.