Menwith madness
Des Browne's sneaked out announcement that Britain is to provide part of Bush's Missile Defence System sends out all the wrong messages as Gordon Brown tries to demonstrate that under him things are now different. I suspect that this is only the first of many cases that show that in terms of New Labour's fundamentals they are not.
Putting out an extremely contentious statement by written answer on the last day of Parliament is certainly back to the bad old days that Jo Moore made famous: latching on to a good day to bury bad news. Nothing new or better here. And it spoils GB's proclaimed wish to foster greater transparency and involve Parliament more. What is the point of offering Parliament a debate every time the police say they need to hold a terrorist suspect more than 28 days, yet denying Parliament the right to decide whether we should consign our nation to the risk of nuclear attack in a new hyped version of Star Wars?
The central reason to oppose allowing the communications base at Menwith Hill to become part of the US missile system, together with upgrading the Fylingdales radar for the same purpose, is that it will increase our vulnerability, not decrease it. It will put the UK on the frontline in future wars, opening up this country as a prime target at the start of any future Big Power hostilities.
US missile defence is provocative, since it allows the US to launch nuclear first-strike attacks without fear of retaliation. Russia is boud to devise its own counter-system, and after 20 years of building down nuclear stocks, the nuclear arms race will be relentlessly ratcheted up again. the Russians are already known to be developing the RS-24 inter-continental missile which is specifically designed to overcome missile defence systems.
Nor should we ignore that this new space race will be stupendously expensive, and without any guarantee of success. As one military analyst put it, Star Wars is like trying to hit one bullet travelling at 17,000 mph with another bullet also travelling at 17,000 mph. The idea that our security should depend on 100% success at every such encounter is, frankly, sheer madness.
It is outrageous that Parliament has been repeatedly informed that there was no plan to use RAF Menwith Hill for missile defence, and is now abruptly told that a deal has been done with the US behind the back of Parliament and it's now too late to do anything about it. The truth is, it isn't. Parliament must insist on a debate and vote on this as soon as it reconvenes, and that vote should be the final say on whether the UK participate in Bush's Star Wars, not a secret behind-the-scenes Government deal.