THE Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) group in Cumbria and Lancashire has called for the country to ‘follow a different path’ on the third anniversary of a UN treaty.

The CND group has called on the government to 'get rid' of nuclear weapons and join the United Nations Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.

The Treaty, which came into force on January 22 2021, makes it illegal under international law for its signatories to develop, test, produce, manufacture, acquire, possess, stockpile, transfer, use or threaten to use nuclear weapons.

It also makes it illegal to assist or encourage anyone to engage in these activities.

At present, only nine countries (China, France, India, Israel, North Korea, Pakistan, Russia, UK, and USA) have nuclear weapons whilst almost 200 do not, including the 115 countries who are part of nuclear weapons-free zones which cover Southeast Asia, Central Asia, the South Pacific, Latin America and the Caribbean and Africa, and the 93 countries who have signed the Treaty.

The CND have also protested against nuclear convoys using the M6.

A recent nuclear crash exercise held at MoD Longtown was ‘beset by blunders’, according to the CND.

The exercise, codenamed Senator 2018, took place in October 2018 and was designed to simulate a “catastrophic” accident on the M6 near Carlisle involving a collision between a northbound nuclear weapons convoy and a southbound lorry imagined to have lost control, crossing the central reservation somewhere between junctions 42 and 43 of the M6 and crashing into a nuclear warhead carrier.

It was imagined that this collision would have caused the “partial detonation” of conventional high explosive in a nuclear warhead and a fire, which would have resulted in “a plume of radioactive material” which would have been “carried on an easterly wind towards Carlisle” where the public would have been advised to stay indoors to avoid radioactive contamination.

“Britain needs to join the global majority and get rid of its nuclear weapons,” said Philip Gilligan from Cumbria and Lancashire CND,

“The United Nations Treaty provides a vital step towards the nuclear-free world we all need, but our Government refuses to even consider signing the Treaty.

“Instead, it is pursuing horrifying plans to squander billions on creating an ever more dangerous and destructive Trident nuclear weapons system.

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“It is time they realised that so-called ‘nuclear deterrence’ is an unproven gamble.

“Deterrence is unacceptable. It is based on the threat to wage nuclear war which would kill millions outright and lead to a nuclear winter and mass starvation that recent research shows would kill billions of people.

“It is a bizarre and misguided theory on which the future of humanity is being risked. The countries of the world, including the United Kingdom, need to pursue a very different path.”