division_name: Terrorist Attack: Nice &#8212; UK's Nuclear Deterrent
motion: <p class="indent" pid="c559.0/2" pwmotiontext="yes">That this House supports the Government&#8217;s assessment in the 2015 National Security Strategy and Strategic Defence and Security Review that the UK&#8217;s independent minimum credible nuclear deterrent, based on a Continuous at Sea Deterrence posture, will remain essential to the UK's security today as it has for over 60 years, and for as long as the global security situation demands, to deter the most extreme threats to the UK's national security and way of life and that of the UK's allies; supports the decision to take the necessary steps required to maintain the current posture by replacing the current Vanguard Class submarines with four Successor submarines; recognises the importance of this programme to the UK&#8217;s defence industrial base and in supporting thousands of highly skilled engineering jobs; notes that the Government will continue to provide annual reports to Parliament on the programme; recognises that the UK remains committed to reducing its overall nuclear weapon stockpile by the mid-2020s; and supports the Government&#8217;s commitment to continue work towards a safer and more stable world, pressing for key steps towards multilateral disarmament.</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="c561.0/2" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;committed to a minimum, credible, independent nuclear capability, delivered through a Continuous At-Sea Deterrent.&#8221;</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="c564.0/2" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;being withheld as it relates to the formulation of Government policy and release would prejudice commercial interests.&#8221;</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="c571.0/3" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;the arguments have not yet been had in public in nearly an adequate enough way to warrant the spending of this nation&#8217;s treasure on the scale that will be required.&#8221;&#8212;[Official Report, <phrase class="date" code="2016-04-20">20 April</phrase> 2009; Vol. 491, c. 84.]</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="c571.2/3" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;we must strengthen the NPT in all its aspects&#8221;</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="c571.2/5" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;that the eventual abolition of nuclear weapons was in all of our interests.&#8221;</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="c571.2/7" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;commitment to the vision of a world free of nuclear weapons is undimmed&#8221;?</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="c571.2/9" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;international community&#8217;s clear commitment to a Middle East Nuclear Weapons Free Zone&#8221;.</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="c572.5/5" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;To say we need nuclear weapons in this situation would imply that Germany and Italy are trembling in their boots because they don&#8217;t have a nuclear deterrent, which I think is clearly not the case.&#8221;</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="c580.5/6" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;improved national security&#8212;through budgetary flexibility in the Ministry of Defence and a more effective response to emerging security challenges in the 21st century&#8221;</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="c580.5/8" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;improved global security&#8212;through a strengthening of the non-proliferation regime, deterring of nuclear proliferation and de-escalation of international tensions&#8221;.</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="c580.5/10" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;vast economic savings&#8212;of more than &#163;100 billion over the lifetime of a successor nuclear weapons system, releasing resources for effective security spending, as well as a range of public spending priorities&#8221;.&#8212;[Official Report, <phrase class="date" code="2016-01-20">20 January</phrase> 2015; Vol. 591, c. 92.]</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="c580.5/12" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;being withheld as it relates to the formulation of Government policy and release would prejudice commercial interests.&#8221;</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="c582.0/2" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;The government needs a safe space away from the public gaze to allow it to consider policy options . . . unfettered from public comment about the affordability&#8221;?</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="c592.2/2" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;naked into the conference chamber&#8221;.</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="c605.0/2" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;We&#8217;ve got to have this thing over here, whatever it costs. We&#8217;ve got to have the Union Jack on top of it.&#8221;</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="c611.2/5" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;Nuclear deterrence was and remains a slippery intellectual construct that translates very poorly into the real world of spontaneous crises, inexplicable motivations, incomplete intelligence and fragile human relationships.&#8221;</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="c614.2/2" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;In a nuclear war there would be no victors, only victims.&#8221;</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="c614.2/4" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;Any use of nuclear weapons would have devastating humanitarian consequences&#8230;and violate the principle of dignity for every human being that is common to each of our faith traditions.&#8221;</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="c614.2/10" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;Nuclear weapons have shown themselves to be completely useless as a deterrent to the threats and scale of the violence we currently face, or are likely to face&#8212;particularly international terrorism.&#8221;</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="c621.0/4" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;naked into the conference-chamber&#8221;.</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="c622.1/5" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;We&#8217;ve had enough of politicians on all sides playing politics with tens of thousands of highly skilled jobs and the communities they support.&#8221;</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="c622.2/3" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;In logic, one cannot prove a negative, that is, that doing something causes something else not to happen. That a nuclear attack has not happened may be a result of any number of other factors, or simply of exceptional good fortune.&#8221;</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="c622.2/6" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;shining a light on the risks posed by nuclear weapons.&#8221;</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="c622.2/8" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;We believe the risks posed by nuclear weapons and the international dynamics that could lead to nuclear weapons being used are underestimated or insufficiently understood by world leaders.&#8221;</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="c626.1/4" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;the British people will not vote for unilateral disarmament. And that reality has to be dealt with.&#8221;</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="c627.2/2" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;States must never make civilians the object of attack and must consequently never use weapons that are incapable of distinguishing between civilian and military targets.&#8221;</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="c628.6/2" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;The United States cannot be confident that our critical Information Technology (IT) systems will work under attack from a sophisticated and well-resourced opponent utilizing cyber capabilities in combination with all of their military and intelligence capabilities.&#8221;</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="c631.2/5" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;maintaining and sustaining the UK&#8217;s nuclear deterrent supports over 30,000 UK jobs and makes a significant contribution to the UK economy&#8221;.</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="c632.2/2" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;On August 6, 1945, a single atomic bomb rendered Hiroshima a scorched plain and tens of thousands were burned in flames. By year&#8217;s end, 140,000&#8230;lives had been taken. Those who managed to survive, their lives grotesquely distorted, were left to suffer serious physical and emotional after effects compounded by discrimination and prejudice. Nuclear weapons are an absolute evil and ultimate inhumanity.&#8221;</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="c633.0/2" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;No one else should ever suffer as we have&#8221;.</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="c633.1/3" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;The destructive power of nuclear weapons cannot be contained in either space or time. They have the potential to destroy all civilization and the entire ecosystem of the planet.&#8221;</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="c636.0/3" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;moral case for a trade union accepting the obliteration of thousands of its members&#8217; jobs and the communities in which they live being turned into ghost towns.&#8221;</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="c638.0/8" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;Cos when the madman flips the switch</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="c638.0/9" pwmotiontext="yes">The nuclear will go for me.&#8221;</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="c639.0/3" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;We regard any loss of life as deeply regrettable and we take our obligations to avoid or minimise casualties extremely seriously. Steps to avoid such casualties are integrated into every aspect of military operations.&#8221;&#8212;[Official Report, <phrase class="date" code="2016-01-07">7 January</phrase> 2004; Vol. 416, c. 141WH.]</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="c639.0/5" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;The prevention of civilian casualties was of paramount concern to force commanders operating in Iraq and the risk of this occurring was minimised at all times by the tactics and training of our forces.&#8221;&#8212;[Official Report, <phrase class="date" code="2016-11-03">3 November</phrase> 2010; Vol. 517, c. 847W.]</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="c639.0/7" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;the United Kingdom seeks to avoid civilian casualties.&#8221;&#8212;[Official Report, <phrase class="date" code="2016-10-20">20 October</phrase> 2014; Vol. 586, c. 668.]</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="c645.1/3" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;to live within our means.&#8221;? &#8212;[Official Report, <phrase class="date" code="2016-11-25">25 November</phrase> 2015; Vol. 1357, c. 602.]</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="c649.0/5" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;all practical purposes&#8230;has not and&#8230;would not deter any of the threats&#8230;likely to face this country in the foreseeable or&#8230;longer-term future.&#8221;&#8212;[Official Report, House of Lords, <phrase class="date" code="2016-01-24">24 January</phrase> 2013; Vol. 742, c. 1229.]</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="c650.1/3" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;The one thing that politicians don&#8217;t address when they talk about Britain&#8217;s nuclear weapons is how they do, or don&#8217;t, actually figure in practical defence policy for the next 10 or 20 years. It is really very depressing.&#8221;</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="c650.2/6" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;It is&#8230;not a question of who is in favour of the&#8230;bomb, but&#8230;what is the most effective way of getting the damn thing destroyed.&#8221;</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="c651.0/2" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;for as long as the global security situation demands&#8221;?</p>
  
  <p class="italic" pid="c654.1/7" pwmotiontext="yes">The House divided:</p>
  
  <p pid="c654.1/8" pwmotiontext="yes">Ayes 472, Noes 117.</p>