Trident.... Tried and found wanting.

Several committed people from the UK are bravely rocking the boat this week, and the boat just happens to be Trident. One is William McNeilly, a whistle blower who  has been serving on HMS Victorious, one of the Royal Navy's four nuclear submarines.  "I am a Strategic Weapons Systems engineer who has sacrificed everything to tell the public how close it is to a nuclear catastrophe."
A short account of security and safety issues recorded by him  can be found at the Nuclear Information Service.  http://www.nuclearinfo.org/  
The article is entitled  'Submariner: Trident is “so broken it can't even do the tests that prove it works”' 
It's certainly worth reading. He expects to go to prison for making this public.  Incidentally, the original post that he wrote at Scribd  has now been deleted.
The other protesters will go on trial today, following their arrest last year for blocking the gate of Devonport Docks, where the nuclear fleet is serviced. 
They are Theo Simon and Nicki Clarke.  I was privileged to  hear Nicki give a speech at the rally commemorating the fourth anniversary of the disaster at Fukushima, outside  Parliament, earlier this year.  These are people who protest because they care.
Theo explains in his blog that he has been charged with 'interrupting the  "lawful" work on the HMS Vengeance Submarine.' and continues:
'My position is that it is the government who are breaking an international treaty by upgrading Britain’s nuclear arsenal, and that work on maintaining a nuclear weapons systems is itself unlawful.
At my trial three expert witnesses will testify on international humanitarian law, the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, and the threat that holding nuclear weapons poses to our security and safety in the southwest. Because it is an indiscriminate “Weapon of Mass destruction”, the Trident warheads could never be fired without committing a crime against humanity, as set out by the International Court of Justice.'
You can find the rest of his post at Theo's blog: https://theosimon.wordpress.com/2015/05/14/my-case-against-trident-in-plymouth-19515%EF%BB%BF/
 Theo has some kind back up from his neighbour, Michael Eavis, dairy farmer and founder of the Glastonbury Festival, who has offered to help with his costs if he loses the case in court. Michael Eavis has been a life-long opponent of nuclear weapons and Glastonbury Festival has showcased the anti-nuclear cause since its beginning.
Maybe the voice of reason is beginning to be heard, and maybe the tide is turning.

See it, even read about it, don't miss it.

As I write this blog, it's around one o'clock in New York City, and it's around six o'clock in London. This means that if I were planning on what to do, if I were New York City this afternoon or evening, I'd perhaps have time to think about going to a film.. and if I was going to a film, I know where I'd be heading.
Today is the last day of the travelling Uranium Film Festival's stop over in the USA.
 Film after film by courageous, innovative and talented directors  have been shown over the past few days and culminate in an evening of three films, "08:15 de 1945", "In My Lifetime" and the film based on the famous book of the same name, "Quietly Into The Disaster"...
To find out more, go to the festival's website, http://www.uraniumfilmfestival.org/en/traveling-festival/usa-2014/new-york-city/wednesday-feb-19
 Meanwhile, on this side of the Atlantic, a report which has taken two years to compile was launched by NIS, The Nuclear Information Service, and Medact. It states that over fifty (over one third) of British Universities have received funding from the Atomic Weapons Establishment. http://www.nuclearinfo.org/article/awe-aldermaston/atoms-peace-investigation-int-links-between-uk-universities-and-atomic 
I am so grateful for the people who keep showing us what is happening, when a whole lot of other people would rather they didn't!