Clown will sell anything to anybody!

amcluesent

The government has sold its last remaining shares in the Aldermaston Atomic Weapons Establishment in Berkshire to an American company.

The move means Britain no longer has any stake in the production of its Trident nuclear warheads.

Opposition MPs have criticised the sale, but the Ministry of Defence said Britain's "sovereign interests" had been protected.

The sale was announced in a one paragraph statement on the BNFL website.

FACT - Clown is so desperate he'll sell anything and to hell with the consequences for England's future!

#Things can only get better...#

Voyager2002

Just for the record: Trident is a US system, and Aldermaston (which is a research facility) has provided minimal inputs to it. As a matter of fact, Trident cannot be fired without codes that the USA has to supply at the point of launch.

lynzpower

shocking very

SGE1

amcluesent wrote: »

Britain no longer has any stake in the production of its Trident nuclear warheads

God, how awful. That's really going to keep me awake at night.

amcluesent

>God, how awful<

Depends. If you like living under Shariah Law, I suppose it's all good news.

neverdespairgirl

I'm not quite sure that is right:

The MoD moved quickly to respond to a BBC report that submarine commanders could, theoretically, launch a nuclear strike without an encrypted code from the Prime Minister.

MoD officials defended their safeguards to ensure political control of the country's nuclear weapons.

"We're satisfied that robust arrangements are in place for political control of the use of the UK's strategic deterrent and these controls are tested and audited," a defence ministry spokesman told the Agence France Presse.

The allegations come from a BBC report that quoted an unknown defence minister. The minister said that because of the large number of personnel involved in launching a nuclear weapon, political permission was not necessarily required.

"Launching a Trident missile from a submarine is a complex activity. Prior to launch, the command and control structure on board the submarine would need to be satisfied that the prime minister has issued instructions to launch nuclear weapons," the official said.

This does not however confirm that the Prime Minister must give a specific code to launch a missile. In the United States, Russia and France, heads of government must give a secret code to any military officer to allow them to launch a nuclear weapon. The code -- a Permissive Action Link (PAL) code -- is required in those countries to arm the weapons, and without it, the bombs are rendered useless. PAL serves as a safeguard to ensure that the head of government’s orders are authentic.

http://www.publicservice.co.uk/news_story.asp?id=4419

abaxas

So, why doesn't Al-Queda (or whatever it's made up name is) just buy it.

Then we can nuke ourselves.

beaujolais-nouveau

amcluesent wrote: »

The government has sold its last remaining shares in the Aldermaston Atomic Weapons Establishment in Berkshire to an American company.

The move means Britain no longer has any stake in the production of its Trident nuclear warheads.

Opposition MPs have criticised the sale, but the Ministry of Defence said Britain's "sovereign interests" had been protected.

The sale was announced in a one paragraph statement on the BNFL website.

FACT - Clown is so desperate he'll sell anything and to hell with the consequences for England's future!

#Things can only get better...#

When I heard that, I felt that it is now more likely that, in due course, Russia will invade and occupy the UK in order to prevent the US deploying Blighty as a nuclear missile launching pad (with or without having occupied us first). And we won't be able to do a thing about it because (a) the Govt has run down our military so badly over the past 12 years, and (b) we as a country are going to be very very poor for the next 20 years - we don't manufacture much to export, and we currently import one-third of our food (that can't continue), and it will be a long time before the UK has repaid its national borrowings (thanks, Gordon).

The UK only narrowly escaped being turned into another Macau by Tony Blair's American casino millionaires. We are going to be another Zimbabwe, instead.

ruggedtoast

This is old news. All Trident ever was is an American fealty tax that we have to pay for their "protection".

The nuclear weapons are provided by them, deployed where they say to deploy them, and will or will not be fired when they decide. Its just we have to pay for them and our own personnel operate them; although its unlikely their strategic use will ever be planned for our own security.

The yanks tried to shove France into this and De Gaulle resisted saying that France will have "her own" nuclear deterrent. To which he was laughed at and told they didnt have the know how and would go bankrupt or blow themselves up trying to achieve this.

Decades on and the French are world leaders in nuclear technology, have the UK energy dependent, have military independence. arent trapped in unpopular wars, are infrequently targetted by terrorists, and once again lead the UK economically.

So who has frogs brains?

Masomnia

Trident shouldn't have been renewed in the first place. Who are we going to nuke anyway? I mean seriously... I'd rather have the money from this sale keeping debt lower than invested in useless arms.

dazboat

The Trident missile and the system needed to support and launch is owned by the US but the warhead is (sorry was) UK.