First defence

The reason successive UK governments retain the Trident missile system is because they can't allow a potential enemy to escalate a dispute beyond the power of the UK to defend itself.

Trident has nothing to do with "weapons of the Cold War" nor indeed with jingoism about the UK "punching above its weight" or any other nonsense concerning British national prestige. It is a simple matter of a government's over-riding duty to defend the people of the realm.

And the argument advanced by the peace lobby, the Lib Dems and the SNP, that enormous cost savings would accrue may balance budgets but doesn't offer a cheaper, realistic alternative.

Nuclear weapons are horrific, but all weapons are horrific. Everyone of a certain age remembers with shame and considerable repugnance, the atomic bombing of Japan.

However, few acknowledge the causes of war include hostility towards one's neighbour. What is more shameful: blaming our weapons or blaming our motives?

ROBERT VEITCH

Paisley Drive

Edinburgh