Letter: Mad decision

IS TRIDENT to become the albatross around our necks? Apparently the government has decided to cut much of our conventional defence resources, human and hardware, previously regarded as essential for the defence of the realm, to maintain an icon, a symbol, the so-called deterrent.

In reality Trident can have no power to deter since everyone knows the use of nuclear weapons is unthinkable, leading as it would to Mutually Assured Destruction.

MAD is the right word for this shambles. How is it that more than 90 per cent of the nations in the world do not have nuclear weapons and do not believe they are necessary for national defence?

PATRICIA SCOTT

Glenorchil Crescent

Auchterarder, Perthshire