[Tezcatlipoca]

More on the Trident debate:

"Election: Clegg right to scrap Trident II, says Owen"

Originally Posted by BBC News

Meirion Jones
BBC Newsnight

On the eve of the Leaders' Debate on foreign policy, Lord Owen has backed Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg's call to scrap Trident II, while the former Chief of Defence Staff Lord Guthrie has called for a rethink.

Lord Owen has told Newsnight that a perfectly adequate nuclear deterrent could be produced for a tenth - or even a twentieth - of the price of the planned Trident II nuclear submarines:

"It's quite ludicrous overkill for a country that's facing a huge structural fiscal deficit and has got to cut public expenditure".

(snip)

... Lord Owen ... says that Britain should never have bought Trident in the first place.

While he was in office he privately advocated a system based on cruise missiles for a fraction of the cost. Nowadays, he says, it would be even cheaper.

New Astute class submarines which are starting to go into Royal Navy service are already fitted with cruise missiles. In times of emergency, he says, their conventional warheads could be switched for nuclear ones.

In today's Times newspaper the former Chief of the Defence Staff, Lord Guthrie, adds his voice to calls from other former military leaders for a review.

"Do we really need the kind of effective weapon we had in the Cold War?" he asks. "There is quite an argument to say we do not."

Lord Owen says this is a commonly held view inside the armed forces:

"Many senior people in the Ministry of Defence want to keep a minimum deterrent with Astute submarines with cruise missiles".

(snip snip snip)

The Daily Telegraph has a story regarding donations received by Clegg:

"Nick Clegg denies wrongdoing over donation cash account"

Originally Posted by BBC News

Nick Clegg has denied any wrongdoing after money given by party donors was paid to his private bank account.

The Daily Telegraph says the Liberal Democrat leader received up to £250 a month from three businessmen in 2006.

Mr Clegg officially declared the donations to the parliamentary authorities and said the money helped pay for a member of his staff.

A spokesman for Mr Clegg said the money was "properly given, properly accounted for and declared".

(snip)

---------- Post added at 02:01 ---------- Previous post was at 02:00 ----------

Originally Posted by TheDaddy

I am goin to vote for Iclandic Volcano party, they have done more to stop immigration into the UK in 5 days than new Labour did in 13 years.....

Kymmy is voting for them too