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Cumbria council boss says don’t scrap Trident

Jul 12 2009 by Phil Doherty, Sunday Sun

CALLS for Britain to scrap its Trident nuclear deterrent could cost the region thousands of jobs and devastate the economy, a North council leader has warned

The fears stem from the Government laying the ground for a review of the armed forces next year, where the £20bn commitment to replace Trident will be one of the subjects discussed.

Jack Richardson, the leader of Barrow Council in Cumbria, said: “We are totally opposed to the scrapping of the Trident programme as we would lose essential skills and our economy would be devastated.

“There are thousands of jobs that are relying on this. Barrow was built on shipbuilding and has being building submarines for years.

“We are the only place in the UK that can build these submarines and to lose these skills because of this would be a disaster.

“And from a national point of view it would be a huge disaster as Britain’s standing in the world relies on having a strong defence capability.

“The last straw would be for the UK’s submarines to be built abroad as it would create a security nightmare that would be intolerable.

“You get the impression that this Government is just not interested in defence and that they see Trident as an easy picking to cut.

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