UK Arms Industry

EDM number 173 in 1995-96, proposed by Harry Cohen on 06/12/1995.

That this House congratulates Britain's top scientist, the President of the Royal Society, Sir Michael Atyah, on his excellent anniversary address to the Society on 30th November; believes that the peace dividend which should have followed the end of the Cold War shows no sign of materialising; believes that anti-personnel mines left behind when a war ends are an environmental disaster and that their use should be banned in future; regrets that Her Majesty's Government, while supporting weaker steps, does not appear wholly to support such a ban; believes that the United Kingdom's half-century long commitment to nuclear weapons has been fundamentally misguided, a waste of resources and a significant factor in the country's relative economic decline, being psychologically understandable but economically disastrous; believes that Her Majesty's Government's current nuclear policies show no long-term vision, only a complacent reliance on the status quo; believes that the United Kingdom's conventional arms industry and export trade represents a misuse of the country's scientific skills to export potential death and destruction to poorer parts of the world whose scarce resources would be better employed on food and health; regrets that the Ministry of Defence employs many scientists and engineers who might in other circumstances be creating wealth for the nation; and calls on the Government to establish a conscious policy for the redistribution of scientific resources.

This motion has been signed by a total of 27 MPs.