Dave Prentis, general secretary of the public sector union Unison, has called on the Government to scrap ID cards and Trident and use the billions of pounds saved to improve public services and help working people through the recession.
Speaking at the union’s political conference in Manchester, he piled more pressure on a Government which, as Tribune reported last week, is looking to make cuts and finding it ever more difficult to justify spending vast sums of money on unpopular and apparently unnecessary projects.
Mr Prentis said: “Trident costs £1.5 billion a year to run and a replacement will cost more than £40 billion. This is a criminal waste of money that the country clearly cannot afford.
“That money would be better spent building and running our schools and hospitals, funding better pensions to care for the elderly and improving the quality of people’s lives.
“This recession is hitting working people very hard. The Government has ploughed billions into shoring up the banks and big business at enormous cost to the taxpayer.
“It’s now time to get the priorities straight – the money they would save scrapping Trident could be used to stimulate the economy and help people who are losing their jobs to find work and families facing repossession to keep their homes.
“Even those who argued that a nuclear deterrent was necessary in the 1960s and 1970s can no longer argue that such expenditure is justified. With money being so tight, it’s time to face facts – Trident and ID cards must go.”
Home Secretary Alan Johnson insisted on Tuesday he is “accelerating the introduction” of ID cards.
However, Chris Grayling, the Shadow Home Secretary, said he was “off his rocker” to waste billions on a “scheme without a purpose” which would only help “young drinkers in pubs” – and backbenchers think the plan will lose Labour votes at the general election.
And service chiefs – especially those in the Army and RAF – are worried that an enormous slice of the defence budget is to be spent on a weapon which will never be used while troops on active service in Afghanistan do not have the right equipment they need to do their job. l
Dave Prentis, general secretary of the public sector union Unison, has called on the Government to scrap ID cards and Trident and use the billions of pounds saved to improve public services and help working people through the recession.
Speaking at the union’s political conference in Manchester, he piled more pressure on a Government which, as Tribune reported last week, is looking to make cuts and finding it ever more difficult to justify spending vast sums of money on unpopular and apparently unnecessary projects.
Mr Prentis said: “Trident costs £1.5 billion a year to run and a replacement will cost more than £40 billion. This is a criminal waste of money that the country clearly cannot afford.
“That money would be better spent building and running our schools and hospitals, funding better pensions to care for the elderly and improving the quality of people’s lives.
“This recession is hitting working people very hard. The Government has ploughed billions into shoring up the banks and big business at enormous cost to the taxpayer.
“It’s now time to get the priorities straight – the money they would save scrapping Trident could be used to stimulate the economy and help people who are losing their jobs to find work and families facing repossession to keep their homes.
“Even those who argued that a nuclear deterrent was necessary in the 1960s and 1970s can no longer argue that such expenditure is justified. With money being so tight, it’s time to face facts – Trident and ID cards must go.”
Home Secretary Alan Johnson insisted on Tuesday he is “accelerating the introduction” of ID cards.
However, Chris Grayling, the Shadow Home Secretary, said he was “off his rocker” to waste billions on a “scheme without a purpose” which would only help “young drinkers in pubs” – and backbenchers think the plan will lose Labour votes at the general election.
And service chiefs – especially those in the Army and RAF – are worried that an enormous slice of the defence budget is to be spent on a weapon which will never be used while troops on active service in Afghanistan do not have the right equipment they need to do their job.
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