Disarming Britain

Momentous” was the word rightly used in one editorial to describe the answer given by Neil Kinnock, leader of the British Labour Party, to a question about his defense policy. Above him at the Labour Party’s annual conference hung a pale pink rose, the new soothing symbol designed by the party’s imagemakers to replace the red flag and proletarian emblems of the past. Soft focus was now the style, moderation the claim.

But one thing was not fudged. The Labour Party is now unequivocally committed to unilateral nuclear disarmament. If it should come to power, it would hope to get rid of all Britain’s nuclear weapons within a year, and to expel American missiles and nuclear bases from British territory. Asked whether he would still be relying, implicitly, on the American nuclear umbrella, Mr. Kinnock replied: “If we are not prepared to use the weapons system ourselves, we should not be asking anyone else to jeopardize themselves by the use of nuclear weapons. I think it would be immoral to do so.”

AL

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Anthony Lejeune

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Momentous” was the word rightly used in one editorial to describe the answer given by Neil Kinnock, leader of the British Labour Party, to a question about his defense policy. Above him at the Labour Party’s annual conference hung a pale pink rose, the new soothing symbol designed by the party’s imagemakers to replace the red flag and proletarian emblems of the past. Soft focus was now the style, moderation the claim.

But one thing was not fudged. The Labour Party is now unequivocally committed to unilateral nuclear disarmament. If it should come to power, it would hope to get rid of all Britain’s nuclear weapons within a year, and to expel American missiles and nuclear bases from British territory. Asked whether he would still be relying, implicitly, on the American nuclear umbrella, Mr. Kinnock replied: “If we are not prepared to use the weapons system ourselves, we should not be asking anyone else to jeopardize themselves by the use of nuclear weapons. I think it would be immoral to do so.”