The coronavirus pandemic, while devastating for us and for our economy, must be viewed as a time for change: an opportunity to do things differently going forward.

I would suggest there are three things we can pressure the Government to do immediately:

1) Sign the UN Non-Proliferation Treaty. The goal of the NPT is simple: to abolish all nuclear weapons, which are of course of no use against the immediate dangers of a pandemic.

2) Scrap Trident and use the several billion pounds currently used for its maintenance to boost our economy and fund our NHS and social care, with proper payment for their workers who have been the heroes of the current crisis.

3) Stop the Arms Trade, which is immoral and unjustified, and has devastating effects, as in Yemen. Jobs in this sector could be transferred to the renewable energy sector. This possibility – indeed, necessity – is well-documented in the Green New Deal which can begin to combat the imminent threat of climate change.

Coronavirus has shaken communities, but the devastation of nuclear war, either by accident or design, would be an experience more terrible than anything we have ever known.../assuming we survived at all!

Carol Anson
St Margarets