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Minister for Peace & Disarmament remains

Fabian Hamilton, MP for Leeds NE since 1997 retains his Front Bench post as Shadow Minister for Peace and Disarmament

Labour CND is delighted to see that the Front Bench post of Shadow Minister for Peace and Disarmament is to be retained under the new leadership, and will continue to be ably filled by Fabian Hamilton MP. Fabian will be working with colleagues in the Shadow Foreign and Commonwealth Office team, including Catherine West, another committed nuclear disarmamer and Vice President of London Region CND. Congratulations both.

Labour’s Foreign and Commonwealth Office team, led by Foreign Secretary Lisa Nandy, comprises Wayne David (Ministter for Middle East and North Africa) Stephen Doughty (Africa, jointly with DFID) Stephen Kinnock (Asia and Pacific) Catherine West (Europe & Americas) and Fabian Hamilton (Peace and Disarmament). It is not yet known if Fabian’s post has the same brief before, which also ranges across policy areas within the defence team.

Thanks to everyone who participated in Labour CND’s online lobby in support of the Minister of Peace post.

Details of Labour’s new front bench here

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Help Save Labour’s Minister of Peace

Labour CND urges all nuclear disarmers, whether or not you’re members of the Labour Party, to take a minute to lobby Labour MPs and leadership candidates and let them know you want to retain the post of Shadow Minister for Peace and Disarmament. Set up under Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership, Fabian Hamilton MP has been Labour’s first ever Shadow Minister for Peace and Disarmament since 2016.

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Expensive MoD projects vs NHS spending

Extravagant military projets mean driving a tank through NHS spending

Co-Founder of Declassified UK Mark Curtis takes a look at how the Mininstry of Defence is planning to spend hundreds of billions on expensive military projects while our under-funded health service struggles to address the coronavirus.

Read Mark Curtis article in full
Take a quick look at what MoD money’s going on

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Covid19 exposes government security failure

Wash your hands of Trident to combat Covid19

Successive National Security Risk Assessments commissioned by the UK government have identified pandemics one of the top threats to Britain’s safety. Then why wasn’t the government prepared for Covid 19? And why are we spending £205 billion on replacing Trident when the NHS is struggling to survive? Read CND’s blogg and let your MP know just what you think government priorities should be.

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LabCND conference postponed

Our2020 annual conference and AGM is postponed for now. We’ll be setting a new date once the present crisis is over. Meanwhile, we’ll be exploring online ways of meeting and campaigning, investigating the possibility of a virtual AGM, and keeping contact with our supporters via regular LabCND E-News.

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No War on Iran

CND and Stop the War Coalition organised a march on Saturday 11th January 2020 calling for peace in the middle east and #NoWarOnIran!

Jeremy Corbyn and Diane Abbott were among the high profile speakers at the event. We were please to see Dulwich and West Norwood and West Walthamstom Labour Party branches at the demo with banners.

Jeremy’s speech can be viewed here:

https://www.facebook.com/JeremyCorbynMP/videos/2971335339759989/UzpfSTEwODUyMDkzMzgyMzE0MDg6Mjc0NTExMDcxODkwNzkyMA/
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Koreans call for peace

Pictured left with Scottish CND Chair and Labour Party member Arthur West and right at Leeds University, Francis Daehoon Lee toured the UK in May representing People’s Solidarity for Participatory Democracy, a south Korean NGO which he helped found in 1994. In London, Scotland and Yorkshire he had the same clear message for everyone he met: the peace process on the Korean Peninsula must continue.

Francis held meetings with Shadow Peace and Disarmament Minister Fabian Hamilton and Shadow International Defence Minister Alex Norris in Westminster and a cross-party group of Scottish parliamentarians in Edinburgh, briefing them on the Trump-Kim talks. He met academics, students and activists for a round-table discussion at Leeds University (pictured right) and joined local activists for a demonstration at the gates of Menwith Hill spy base. Former Labour MEP Glyn Ford, author of Talking to North Korea: ending the nuclear standoff joined Francis on the platform of a public meeting in London.

Francis Daehoon Lee speech:

Glyn Ford speech: