To press or not to press?

By Sally Patricia Gardner

To press or not to press? That is indeed the question. Jeremy Corbyn says he wouldn’t. Now, I am not sure how many people would press the nuclear button, but I wonder if he hasn’t missed the point here. Jeremy wants a nuclear free world. Don’t we all? And I would like a war free world, a hunger free world, a poverty free world, in fact, a perfect world. Wouldn’t we all?

 

Image by Paul Downey (view license details)

But wishing is never enough – remember that old adage: ‘If wishes were horses then beggars would fly’? It used to conjure up all sorts of pictures for me when I was a child, before I realised that it was grown-up way of putting me down. And you will know, if you have read my blog before, that I don’t want to put Jeremy down. It is my most heartfelt wish that all the people who voted for him to be our party’s leader are right, and my misgivings are totally unfounded.

So what am I on about? Let me say, first of all, that I was a member of CND for years. I wore my badge proudly, went on many of the marches, chatted with Bruce Kent and Joan Ruddock. Was totally committed to unilateral nuclear disarmament and believed that it was achievable and that we would pave the way for other nations to follow. But it didn’t happen, did it?

Nine countries now possess over 17,000 nuclear weapons between them. Another five countries host them.  Another twenty-three countries are in nuclear alliances. And some countries, such as Israel and North Korea, could have even more weapons than we are aware of.  Many of these weapons, especially in America and Russia, are primed for immediate use.

Sadly, perhaps inevitably, the world has moved on, and, in hindsight, I still think our campaign was morally right, but now it seems naive in the extreme.

Which brings me back to Jeremy refusing to press that button. Surely our best hope is that our enemies (and yes, we have plenty of those) don’t know whether we would press it or not? By declaring that we wouldn’t, we effectively negate our chance of negotiating for the disposal of these ghastly weapons. Who is going to listen to the minor power with no irons in any fire that we would immediately become?

This little island has always punched well above her weight. Against all the odds, the world listens to our voice. And we could claim to have saved the world at least once, I think. And perhaps we may do so again. Don’t throw away our chance of doing so, Jeremy. Keep them guessing. Sometimes it is necessary for even saints to just keep quiet.

 

Happy memories? living with the threat of nuclear war

By Sally Patricia Gardner

It is part of our daily pattern to spend an hour or more every day walking our three dogs in the woods. By which I mean, of course, we walk – and they run! There is something life-affirming about hearing the birdsong and watching the changing patterns of nature. May is the month of the cuckoo, and the wood anemones and bluebells, and we have watched the primroses, the wild daffodils and orchids, the violets and all the other spring flowers reach their peak and then slowly give way to the next natural wonder. The trees have nearly completed their leaf canopy, and on the increasingly sunny days we are treated to the delicate dance of the sunshine and shadows penetrating their green lushness. And last week we were serenaded by a nightingale – bliss.

The media needs to reignite the debate about nuclear disarmament

By Lucette Davies

As a student in the 1980s I can remember hearing about CND just about everywhere I went.  The Cold War was in full swing and  many people feared the day that the Soviet Union would decide to press that fateful button, and release its nuclear weapons.