Trident: what’s the Lib Dem alternative?

Nick Clegg said in April:

What we’re saying is there are a number of options that you could explore in the future… you could equip the Astute submarine. What we’ve done is, I asked Menzies Campbell to look at the range of options and he’s published a number of options simply to make the point which the other parties won’t even accept that there are alternatives to a like-for-like replacement for Trident.

“We haven’t yet settled on which of those options. What we’re doing is something the government are refusing to do, and the Conservatives refuse to do – they wont even include it in a future defence review. Whether we have a nuclear deterrent or not depends heavily on whether multi-lateral nuclear disarmament in the non-proliferation talks succeed or not I am a multilateralist.

Recently, at one of his town hall style meetings Lib Dem Leader and Deputy PM Nick Clegg said that housing benefit payments were more important than Trident.

Reading Lib Dem Cllr Glenn Goodall said the idea was 'not have a like-for-like replacement of Trident since it is an out dated relic from the cold war.' He suggests 'a cheaper cruise missile based system.'

I dont want to belittle what is a slight improvement on Labour and Tory policy but thought cruise missiles were a cold war relic anyway. So replace one relic with another, oh dear. Why not scrap it? It does nothing for our security, actually it may make us a target. More to the point if we believe the govt about out terrible financial state we cant afford it. And it sends the wrong message, some countries think that by having weapons like ours they will join us in power and influence.