I read the Podium article by Barrow and Furness MP John Woodcock (Gazette, October 8, 'The UK must maintain a strong nuclear deterrent').

Many people voted in the recent election for a real alternative to Tory austerity and an end to unwanted projects such as Trident. John Woodcock defies the recently elected leader of his own party and blatantly claims “nothing will stop the submarine programme going past the point of no return”.

We cannot know what threats the country will face in the next 30 years but from our experience of the rapid changes in the international situation during the last 50 years we know that continuing to opt for a highly-sophisticated, inflexible system of defence may prove to be of no use whatsoever.

Why should Britain continue to maintain a strong nuclear deterrent? What conceivable situation could justify the use of these weapons of mass destruction and are we really any safer because we possess them? The counter argument is more convincing.

The Labour party did not decide to back Trident at its conference - there was a veto on this debate by the unions and influential members of parliament.

Many (and possibly John Woodcock) support Trident mainly because of jobs and its economic importance. It is difficult to deny this for Barrow and West Cumbria and it is essential that ending the Trident programme should be done slowly and carefully, so the highly-trained specialist workforce could be treated fairly and their great skill and knowledge gradually directed into more socially beneficial work.

It is unbelievable that both parliament and the ordinary people of this country have tolerated the mis-allocation of resources to the Trident Project for so long, particularly during a time of savage cuts in essential health, social and education services, the police and even the Army!

John Woodcock seems to want to completely pre-empt the parliamentary vote, expected in 2016. We cannot allow new nuclear weapons to be railroaded through in this way, without full consideration.

Let's invest the billions for Trident and other prestige projects on addressing the real challenges we face as a society, as well as dealing realistically with international terrorism and climate change.

Roger N. Cartwright

Silverdale