From 1:30pm today, while Parliament was sitting inside, 60 Trident Ploughshares activists from across the UK chained themselves to the railings outside the Houses of Parliament in Westminster
They are calling for the UK to Sign the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons and scrap Trident, Britain’s nuclear weapons system
Members of the campaign group Trident Ploughshares chained themselves along thirteen sections of wrought iron fence stretching from Big Ben to Parliament Square and hung banners that proclaim “Denuclearize the World – Sign the Treaty” and “Trident Terrorises”
Angie Zelter from Knighton in Wales said “Since the end of the Cold War the world has largely forgotten about nuclear weapons. An exchange of nuclear weapons deployed around the world right now would cause a famine and the deaths of billions of people.
“The situation is urgent. As long as the UK and other countries continue to rely on nuclear weapons to project power countries like North Korea will want to have them too, increasing the risk that someday they will be used again.
“Instead of working towards nuclear disarmament as they promised the UK and other nuclear weapons states are building a new generation of nuclear weapons and putting us all at risk of nuclear war. Tensions between the West and Russia or in the Middle East could lead to conflict.
“Let’s choose real security. Sign the Ban Treaty.”