Trident jobs

I try to be a good socialist and have followed the career and statements of John Parks with admiration. However, I cannot go along with his opinion reported in Andrew Whitaker’s article (18 November) that the cost in job losses would be too high to justify getting rid of the Trident submarines.

The problem isn’t with the submarines, of course, it’s with the damned weapons they carry. Despite the reassurances of retired admirals, nuclear weapons are not battlefield weapons, they are city busters, and there is no conceivable circumstance in which the British people will authorise their use against what would inevitably be civilians targets.

Haven’t we evolved beyond the “do as we say or we’ll atomise your children” stage, even to those who would make the same threat to us?

We will have to put aside our nuclear weapons one day; they are expensive and ultimately useless. Yes, that will incur job losses which we will have to live with – a price worth paying? Reluctantly, I think so. So does Scottish Labour leadership candidate Neil Findlay; so I have hopes.

David Fiddimore

Calton Road

Edinburgh

With regard to jobs at Faslane it should be borne in mind that expenditure on defence doesn’t earn any money or produce saleable goods or services. If Trident were scrapped the Ministry of Defence could continue to pay everyone currently employed, save money on materials etc and yet leave the economy unimpaired.

S Beck

Craigleith Drive

Edinburgh