Today January 22nd 2021 we kick off the worldwide celebrations to mark the entry into force of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons by projecting images and slogans onto key Edinburgh buildings: the Scottish Parliament, the government building at Victoria Quay, the Tron on the Royal Mile, and, as a special challenge to the UK government which has refused to acknowledge the Treaty, on the new Scotland Office building in New Street.
As well as ‘The World is No Place for Nuclear Weapon’, the images noted that the Treaty has outlawed nuclear weapons, and that the Scottish government supports it.
Portobello resident and Trident Ploughshares member Margaret Bremner said:
“The Tron in Edinburgh has long been the place to welcome in the New Year. Today’s welcome, written large, is for the UN TPNW; a cause for celebration around the world. A clear message of support also shone on the Parliament, the Scottish Office and the new UK government building, QE House: The World is No Place For Nuclear Weapons. Campaigners recognise that the Scottish government supports this Treaty, but pressure will need to continue to convince the UK to accede to its demands.”
TP member Dr Rowland Dye who hung a banner with a big nuclear mushroom cloud and the words ‘Never Again’ from a bridge in Bristol said “It’s immoral that Britain continues to hold nuclear weapons – just one Trident submarine could launch enough missiles to kill up to 45 million people. That’s obscene! Yet the government wants to renew Trident costing us over two hundred billion pounds. In the midst of this health crisis everyone can see this money would be better spent on the NHS, fighting climate-change, or feeding our children.
At noon church bells rang out the good news as many campaigners rung bells often on their own doorsteps due to covid restrictions. Listen to them here
More photos from round the country here