Weapons of mass destruction

I did not have time to highlight this yesterday but the views of two retired defence chiefs that the Trident missile system should be scrapped are sufficiently important to merit a late comment.

Lord Ramsbotham, a former adjutant-general who became the chief inspector of prisons, and Field Marshal Lord Bramall, a former chief of the defence staff, have appealed to ministers to think again about their 2007 decision to renew Trident at a cost of up to £20bn. They argue that the money would be better spent on the precision weapons needed for current conflicts.

I believe that their case has merits. Britain's obsession with holding a nuclear deterrent cannot be justified by our status in the world. There is a strong argument in my view to let our present nuclear arsenal wither on the vine and to reinforce our conventional forces instead.

Perhaps the intervention of these two authorative figures will cause the Liberal Democrats to rethink their policy on Trident.