MP queries UK's Trident renewal plan

Plans to renew Britain's nuclear defence have been questioned by Livingston MP Graeme Morrice.

The MP believes the measure to be costly and unnecessary, especially in a time of austerity.

"It is timely to ask why the UK Government is spending billions of pounds of taxpayers' money on a replacement for the Trident nuclear weapons system when, at the same time, it is cutting essential public services and benefits," he said.

The comments were made ahead of the anniversary of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings, on 6 and 9 August.

The MP's opinion is shared by John Ainslie, coordinator of the Scottish Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament: "The nuclear weapons based in Scotland today are equivalent to 1500 Hiroshima bombs. There should be no place here, or anywhere else, for these WMDs."