Thanks to Jim Dobbin MP for signing EDMs 854 and 855

Rochdale and Littleborough Peace Group was delighted to see that Jim Dobbin MP has signed Early Day Motions 854 and 855 (see  http://www.parliament.uk/edm/2013-14/854  and http://www.parliament.uk/edm/2013-14/855 ).


EDM 854 welcomes the statement from 125 states expressing concern about the catastrophic humanitarian consequences of nuclear weapons at the UN General Assembly First Committee on 21 October 2013; regrets the non-attendance of the UK Government at the governmental conference in Oslo to discuss this issue in March 2013; and urges the Government to ensure that the UK is represented at the new governmental conference in Mexico in February 2014. 

EDM 855 welcomes progress in diplomatic negotiations in the Middle East to eliminate existing stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction (WMDs); and urges the UK Government to do its utmost to take advantage of positive momentum and ensure a conference supported and attended by all states of the region is convened without delay, so as to apply pressure on all states of the region to dismantle their arsenals of WMDs and make serious progress on a weapons of mass destruction free-zone in the Middle East.
 
These are vital issues and it is great to see that Jim is amongst the MPs in parliament taking them seriously and urging the Government to take actions which will contribute towards making this a safer and more peaceful world.

The Peace Group hopes that he will be joined by other local MPs in these efforts.

Messages of Peace for Littleborough

The Peace Group took their colourful peace cranes and an 'NHS Not Trident' message to the corner of Church Street and Hare Hill Road, in Littleborough on Saturday (14 December 2013).

Local campaigners, Pat Sanchez, Pauline Devine, Patricia and Philip Gilligan asked Christmas shoppers enjoying the carols to join them in signing a letter confirming that they want their taxes "spent on decent health and social care services, not the Trident nuclear weapons system". They distributed not only Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament leaflets asking, "What if we had over £100bn to spend on healthcare, transport, housing, education and energy?" but also samples of folded paper peace cranes and instructions for making these paper birds. The cranes were made by children and peace campaigners from across Japan who had attended this year's Peace March from Tokyo to Hiroshima marking the 68^th anniversary of the dropping of the first atomic bomb. They have been sent to peace and anti-nuclear groups throughout the world, including Rochdale and Littleborough Peace Group by 'Gensuikyo', the Japan Council against Atomic and Hydrogen Bombs with a request that they be given as tokens of peace to promote a worldwide message of nuclear disarmament.

On behalf of the Peace Group, Philip Gilligan said, 

“The people of Japan know better than most the horrifying and indiscriminate destruction that the bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki brought in 1945. They do well remind us in Littleborough and elsewhere that nuclear weapons now threaten to destroy our entire planet. We were delighted to receive the gift from Gensuikyo. The cranes symbolise our united call for all countries to scrap their ever-more dangerous nuclear arsenals and inspire us to repeat our demand that politicians in Britain recognise the need to scrap the Trident nuclear weapons system, immediately."

"There are many reasons why our taxes should never be spent on nuclear weapons and amongst them is the fact that scrapping the Trident nuclear weapons system would save our country around £100 billion. This is money which could fully fund all A&E services in hospitals for over 40 years into the future or be used to build 150 new state-of-the-art hospitals or to pay the wages of 150,000 extra nurses for the next 30 years. That would save lives, instead of threatening humankind's very existence.", he added.