Politics
A birthday celebration in a world of even greater peril
Published 14 February 2008
A birthday celebration in a world of even greater peril
Once in a generation a resistance movement arises that truly tests the fabric of the state. Not many have withstood the authorities for as long as the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, which celebrates its 50th anniversary this weekend. As Bruce Kent recalls on our website, CND grew out of discussions within the pages of the New Statesman. From the first Aldermaston marches, through to cruise, Pershing and Greenham Common, it has lived through many peaks and troughs, its membership rising as the nuclear threat escalates.
Nowadays, CND might seem to have little of the salience of the 1950s or 1980s. Yet its message has endured and the danger remains ever-present. Security has not been guaranteed by the nuclear deterrent; the more capability proliferates, the more the onus should be on the original "five" nuclear states to disarm, setting an example.
Indeed, one could argue that the world is entering a new phase of uncertainty, with nuclear technology at its heart. The threat comes on many fronts. While North Korea appears to have put its ambitions on hold, Iran's plans remain unclear. The three most dangerous violators - all have consistently refused to sign up to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty - are India, Pakistan and Israel. The west's approach to these three is one of double standards. India appears to have been given carte blanche; Pakistan is viewed with greater suspicion (particularly since the father of its bomb, A Q Khan, confessed to selling nuclear technology to Pyongyang), but is allowed to proceed.
Israel is assumed to have nuclear, biological and chemical capability. Since 1968, production of nuclear weapons at its Dimona facility has been an open secret. For three decades, Israel has refused to place its facilities, civilian or military, under the International Atomic Energy Agency, in defiance of the UN Security Council. For as long as it acts in this way, the prospects of disarmament in the Middle East are zero. British government ministers cannot quite explain whether these three countries are indulged because their refusal to join the NPT puts them out of reach, as they are not technically in breach of their obligations, or simply because they are considered friendly.
And yet a process of sorts is supposed to be in train. The 187 signatories to the NPT have already begun planning for a conference in 2010 to strengthen the treaty. The original UN resolution that led to its signature in 1968 outlined several principles. These included a watertight ban to ensure no proliferation; a balance of responsibilities and obligations that applied equally to the "five" powers and to the rest; and, importantly, that "the treaty should be a step towards the achievement of general and complete disarmament, and, more particularly, nuclear disarmament".
On these rules, the world has failed.
This decade is the first of many in which the major powers have not worked to reduce their stocks of weapons. The US is rearming fast, citing the link between terrorism, rogue states and nuclear weapons, even though the generals know that a more flexible conventional force is the best way of dealing with modern threats. The Russians cite a new suspicion of the west. The French rarely debate the issue, while their president, Nicolas Sarkozy, tours the Middle East and other regions as a salesman for France's nuclear energy industry.
The role of the British government has been one of hypocrisy and self-regard. Labour has an ignoble record dating back to Nye Bevan and Harold Wilson. In the past year, Messrs Blair and Brown have forced the renewal of Trident through parliament, in spite of a rebellion by more than 80 of their own MPs. Brown has written an open cheque for tens of billions of pounds.
Even as ministers succumb to the entreaties of the arms companies and security services, so the anti-nuclear lobby should not succumb to creeping defeatism. The Scottish Executive, under Alex Salmond, is leading the way in challenging Trident in Scotland. The First Minister has no power to stop the new system, but, as past decades show, protest does have an effect. The range of dangers is more diffuse, and the situation more perilous than it has ever been.
Happy birthday, CND.
The future is always imperfect
Titanium dioxide nanoparticles . . . no, don't go away. We're offering a glimpse of the future here. It seems scientists have developed a spray of these TDNs (positively our last mention) that will react with sunlight and enable clothes to clean themselves when hung, unwashed, on the washing line (or nano-line, as it will become known). No more washing, dry-cleaning or ironing. Just hang and go. Bliss! We read, it could happen within five years.
But don't dump the washing machine just yet. "Scientists have developed . . ." stories so frequently disappoint. Remember the nylons that wouldn't ladder; the car that would run on water; everlasting lipstick; the robot to clean the house; the pill that would replace meals (an appealing idea when English food was really quite poor).
The touching, but ultimately misplaced, faith we once had in a future of leisured gadgetry was portrayed vividly in The Man in the White Suit, a 1951 Ealing comedy starring Alec Guinness. His character, Sidney Stratton, works in a textile factory and invents a cloth that repels dirt and never wears out. In his bright, white, indestructible suit, Stratton is at first feted but then - as bosses and unions realise the harm to profits and jobs - spurned. Luckily, his formula has a flaw and his suit self-destructs, leaving him alone in the street in his underwear.
Thus, we are sure, it will prove for the developers of the no-wash shirt. (And, talking of underwear, see our "Guantanamo is pants" story on page 28.)
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