WHAT a disaster it is that our Conservative government is hell bent on wasting billions of pounds on renewing Britain’s weapons of mass destruction.

Nuclear weapons are very costly, desperately dangerous and thoroughly immoral. The £31bn-plus price tag would of course be much better spent on our underfunded schools and hospitals and on more conventional weapons.

Nuclear missiles are as much use as a chocolate teapot against terrorists. A nuclear missile fired by mistake could lead to a full-blown thermo-nuclear war that would destroy us all in a flash or slowly from radiation and starvation.

The Tory government should put its efforts into arguing for all countries with nukes to scrap them. Refusing to renew Trident would show Britain was prepared to take that lead. Renewing Trident will be the excuse every other nation needs to increase their own weapons of mass destruction.

JOHN TANNER (Cllr, Labour)
City Councillor for Littlemore and County Councillor for Isis
Sunningwell Road
Oxford