Currently reconsidering my views on nuclear weapons. I have previously supported maintaining them in the UK as a way of bargaining them away elsewhere and playing our own part in multilateral disarmament. This is an unusual position on the Labour left, even among those who are more Bevan than Benn.
But can spending on them really be justified while vital services are being cut, and there are far more efficient ways of investing in jobs without endangering millions of lives? Secondly, multilateralism is fine. But why us? If Germany can simply avoid wasting its money on these idle murder factories, why should we?
This is the single thing I have been least consistent on since I started ‘having views’. Free education? Solid. Unions and that? All good. Military actions? I haven’t always fallen one way or the other easily, but I do have a consistent set of principles – I oppose ground occupations and military actions that are not in defence of genuine grassroots uprisings elsewhere, or self-defence here.
I just think that nukes are the hardest question of all. For anyone remotely sensible, removing them has to be a priority. There is just so much game theory involved.