Get priorities right – pay nurses, abolish nuclear weapons

WHAT a shame that the announcement of new jobs in the region is because the UK is replacing the Trident nuclear weapons system with a new Dreadnought submarine-based system (‘How the Dreadnought submarine programme is supporting 2,500 jobs in Yorkshire’, The Yorkshire Post, March 29), estimated to cost well over £200bn over its 20-30 year lifetime.

These horrific weapons of mass destruction could wreak havoc and catastrophe if used, killing millions of civilians when there is so much work needed to be done to develop solutions preventing the spread of further pandemics and combatting climate change.

Wouldn’t these be a better investment in our future? The past has shown that jobs on major high-tech defence projects cannot be guaranteed for long, but we will need to develop and build new ways of renewable and low-cost energy production for a very long time if we are to save the planet. According to the International Institute for Strategic Studies, now that the Government has increased military spending to its highest since the Cold War, the UK defence budget is the fourth highest in the world – now even greater than Russia.

At the same time the Government is offering nurses and other healthcare workers a miserable one per cent pay rise, which actually amounts to a pay cut after inflation.

In addition, the recently announced 40 per cent increase in UK nuclear warheads will add more expense to the total bill for the Dreadnought system and has reversed the trend of decreasing the number of nuclear weapons which has been government policy since the Cold War.

A recent poll by Survation has shown that 77 per cent of people in the UK support a ‘total ban on all nuclear weapons’ and 59 per cent support the Government signing up to the recent UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.

So, come on Boris – get your priorities right: pay the nurses, fund the NHS, sign the treaty and cut the number of nuclear warheads to zero.

From: Andrew Kilburn, Alandale Crescent, Garforth.

MY plan for levelling up is simple. Barricade the A1M and intercept the cash wagons en route to the Socialist Enclave of Scotland. This way we could give our NHS staff a four per cent pay increase, give free prescriptions to all sick people and offer free university places to our sons and daughters.