Thousands gather at anti-Trident rally

Anti-Nuclear protesters came together yesterday in a major rally calling on politicians to scrap Trident.

Nicola Sturgeon told the crowd at the Bairns Not Bombs demonstration in Glasgow that she thought it was the largest of its kind ever staged in the city.

With just over a month until the General Election, campaigners marched through the city centre before filling George Square with a sea of placards and banners.

The rally, organised by the Scrap Trident group, will be followed on April 13 by a blockade of Faslane naval base, home of the UK’s nuclear deterrent.

The action is geared towards piling pressure on Westminster candidates to block the renewal of the nuclear weapon system and invest in public services.

First Minister Sturgeon said: “One of the biggest decisions that MPs will take in the next parliament is whether to waste £100 billion on renewing these morally obscene weapons.

“Broken down, that’ll be around £3 billion a year, peaking at an eye-watering £4 billion in the 2020s.”

A police estimate suggested around 2,500 people attended the rally, while organisers said the figure was closer to 4,000.

Scottish Green party co-convenor Patrick Harvie told the crowd: “There’s a wave of anger up and down Scotland and throughout these islands at the idea of cutting billions from the budget that support the most vulnerable people in society, while spending even more billions on a new generation of weapons of mass destruction.

“Your job over the coming weeks is to make sure people hear the alternative voice.

“Let’s convince everybody in this country to vote no to Trident.”

Labour’s North Ayrshire candidate Katy Clark also addressed the rally, along with Cat Boyd from the Radical Independence Campaign and Ann Henderson of the STUC.