Pyramid Stage

 Since the age of about 16 I've supported the aims of CND. In the '60s there was the real threat of nuclear conflict during the Cuban missile crisis, and also in the '80s during the height of the Cold War with Reagan's sabre-rattling. My first Glasto (in 1981) was a benefit for CND and featured talks by Bruce Kent and EP Thompson.

I read sci fi where a nuclear war was started by accident. The prospect of mutually assured destruction was a realistic one. Heroic women were camped outside the RAF base at Greenham Common, in protest against the nuclear missiles based there. It felt like the UK was being used as a static aircraft carrier for US weaponry.

Not that I had any sympathy for a Soviet government which had suppressed dissent, sent tanks into Hungary in 1956, into Czechoslovakia in 1968, and into Afghanistan in 1979. It just seemed like - if there's going to be a nuclear war then that's the end - why make it any worse by lobbing UK missiles along with all the others? So we might as well get rid of Trident anyway. The Non-Proliferation Treaty worked up to a point (the disarmament strand has failed) it does look a little hypocritical for the UK to keep ours but then deny them to other countries. (Like the rich kids having more than enough water pistols and then closing the factory so the poor kids can't have any.)

After the collapse of the Soviet Union 30 years ago it became even more ridiculous to maintain a nuclear deterrent. Like that's going to deter Al-Qaeda or ISIS? The major nations are so inter-dependent for trade, finance, industry that they would never destroy all that through warfare, would they? Come on - save billions by not replacing Trident! Spend it on education and the NHS!

Within the last few days I've changed my mind.

Pyramid stage, 1981 (happier times)