Originally published on March 16th 2010

AS MANY as a thousand Edinburgh protesters were joined on Saturday by First Minister Alex Salmond in a march against the renewal of Trident, the UK’s nuclear deterrent system.

The march began at Scottish Parliament and wound down the Royal Mile into the Grassmarket, where Alex Salmond rallied the crowd with a vehement speech.
“I look forward to the democratic abolition of missiles. There’s an irony in deploying Hans Blix to look for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq when he would have had no trouble finding them in Faslane on the Clyde,” he said.
The First Minister added: “Scotland has made its choice, we wait for that choice to be recognized. There is no defence logic in keeping Trident, and everyone knows it.”
Salmond was joined in the march by members of his SNP party, the Clydebank Trades Council, the Communist Party, the Lib Dems and others.
Many speakers, Salmond among them, mentioned the economic toll of Trident in such a fragile economy.
Said Ian Galloway, Convener of the Church of Scotland’s Church and Society Council: “Every pound we spend [on Trident] reduces our capacity to do the things that matter most at home.”
“The fight against nuclear weapons unties people of all faiths and none,” he added.
Several MPs were on hand to speak as well, including Labour MP Mark Lazarowicz of Edinburgh North and Leith and Lib Dem MP John Barrett, of Edinburgh West.
Said Lazarowicz, “let none of us forget that it is not just arguments of emotion, but of logic that are on our side.”
Barrett urged citizens to let their opposition to Trident be heard in the upcoming general election: “People have to get out onto the street and vote for parties who oppose Trident.”
Kate Hudson, Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament chairman cited recently released opinion poll statistics in her speech: “It's young people who have the foresight to say that they don’t want the UK to be a nuclear country past the middle of this century.”
“We have to make sure that good intentions don’t remain intentions – it is our duty to make politicians listen to our message,” she added.