Edinburgh Labour is Revolting

Not to be outdone by Malky Chislom Cllr Ewan Aitken has posted on his own blog that he too is anti-Trident. The entire entry reads…

“Trident: I am deeply distressed and disappointed about the direction of debate in my Party over Trident. I cannot see any moral, ethical or legal argument why we would want to spend billions of pounds on a weapon of mass destruction which not only do we not want to use in anger, but we then use to bring about a type of peace which is actually merely an absence of war, which is no peace at all. Our possession of said weapons have not helped us one iota in the present wars in which we are entangled. I do not believe that we would lose our place on the national stage if we removed Trident. On the contrary, we would enter the world stage with a new integrity where we reached out in trust not in threat. And perhaps more importantly, we would be seen to be once again forging our own path and not limping along in Americas wake”.

Lets just break that down…

- “deeply distressed and disappointed about the direction of debate in my Party over Trident”, He’s anti-Trident the Labour line is pro-Trident.

- “Our possession of said weapons have not helped us one iota in the present wars in which we are entangled”, So he’s against the War in Iraq too.

- “we would be seen to be once again forging our own path and not limping along in Americas wake”, So is also against the general thrust of Labour’s foreign policy.

Ewan Aitken is the Leader of ‘Edinburgh Labour’. He is in one of the most senior positions in the Labour party in Scotland. Yet still the Labour leadership ignore him and his views (and those of a Scottish cabinet minister). Is it any wonder the people of Edinburgh think that the Labour party isn`t listening to them?

I agree with Ewan that there is no “moral, ethical or legal argument why we would want to spend billions of pounds on a weapon of mass destruction”. The difference between us is that I will be campaigning for the SNP, a party steadfastly against nuclear weapons and he will be campaigning for Labour who is going to spend over £25 billion on new nuclear weapons. Can Cllr Aitken now follow up his words with deeds?

Ewan, I offered Malky some help should he ever wish to join a party more in keeping with his beliefs, happy to make you the same offer.