It was a sunny but cold morning as I drove down Gare Loch in Scotland last week towards the town of Helensburgh. I was on my way to visit the Peace Camp at Faslane where the UK’s so-called independent nuclear submarine fleet is based.
Britain’s nuclear armoury, which is actually part of a NATO force largely under the control of the US, has suddenly rocketed to the top of the political agenda with the arrival on the national scene of the Scottish National Party’s leader Nicola Sturgeon. Sturgeon’s success in debating with the six other main UK party leaders on British television, the SNP’s challenge against Labour in Scotland and the state of the polls nationally mean that the prospect of a possible anti-Conservative majority in Westminster in the May 7 general election is putting Trident squarely in the centre of the election campaign.
There were signs of spring along Gare Loch, just north of the Firth of Clyde near Glasgow but the distant mountains were covered with snow after a week of unseasonally bitter weather. At the Peace Camp, a small group were stoking a wood-burning stove to make tea as the welcome sunlight filtered through the still leafless trees.
