TP disarmament campaigners across the UK celebrated the historic 50th ratification of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) moment when nuclear weapons on Sunday and called on the UK to Sign the Ban Treaty.
Our gathering at the North Gate of Faslane naval base 30 miles from Glasgow along with Faslane Peace Campers was reported in The National newspaper with a great photo.
Meanwhile in Edinburgh Trident Ploughshares / Protest in Harmony campaigners Margaret and Sheila danced to Penny Stone singing “I can ban that bomb, we can ban that bomb” in Portabello as Gillean held up a banner over at the Scottish Parliament.
A TP statement said: “We’ve always said that nuclear weapons are immoral and illegal. Now it’s an irrefutable fact. In 90 days when the TPNW enters into force nuclear weapons will be illegal in international law.”
Another said “The UK government should get its head out of the sand. Nuclear weapons are history. The UK should look to the future, join the rest of the world, sign the treaty and disarm these terrible weapons at last.”
TP members celebrated all 50 of the states who ratified the treaty in Plymouth where the UKs submarines are refitted.
Quakers in Huddersfield were atop Huddersfield’s iconic Castle Hill with banners calling on the government to sign the treaty.
Sarah was at a demonstration in Oxford town centre, Ann & Shigeo held banners in Wickford, Essex and Angie rang bells in the street in Knighton in Wales announcing the beginning of the end of nuclear weapons.
The tide has turned with 50 countries joining together to declare the very possession of nuclear weapons illegal.
The UK and other nuclear weapons states cannot continue to hide behind absurd theories of deterrence. The terrible threat of use of nuclear weapons with which we have lived for too long will soon be a thing of the past.