Author Archives: Colin Ross

Nick’s One Million Door Challenge

Party Leader Nick Clegg has set us a challenge – a One Million Door Challenge!

One million sounds a lot, but it is actually just around 1,500 doors per constituency. In the eleven months leading up to this May’s local elections we, in Wolverhampton South West, knocked on about 17,500 doors. Perhaps 1,500 doors isn’t that much after all.

Knocking on doors matters, but not just for the sake of it. Knocking on doors should be at the heart of Liberal Democrat campaigning, it is within our tradition of Community Politics, a tradition that is key to our success. There are at …

Posted in News | 4 Comments

Opinion: Conference delegates should vote for ‘No new Trident’

Colin and Sean ring the peace bellTo me the answer is simple – the answer is no. No to Trident, No to son of Trident and No to any so called Independent Nuclear Deterrent.

Last year I went on behalf of the party to Pakistan and tried to engage with politicians there as to why it was wrong for Iran or any other nation to develop nuclear weapons and why Pakistan should pull back from developing more nuclear weapons. What message does our policy send to them – that it is okay for the UK to have nuclear weapons but you can’t?

Last year I also went to Hiroshima. I challenge anyone who is in favour of the UK, or anywhere, having nuclear weapons to go there for a day. See what destruction they caused and come back and tell me it is a good idea. The Mayor of Hiroshima – Tadatoshi Akiba has written to Ming Campbell, he said “In the name of Hiroshima, in the name of the human race, I call on the British government to immediately terminate all new development of nuclear weapons and begin destroying all existing nuclear weapons. I ask that the United Kingdom adhere conscientiously to the advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice declaring that the threat or use of nuclear weapons is illegal under international law, and live up to the promise clearly stated in the NPT of an unequivocal undertaking to eliminate its nuclear arsenal. I fervently hope that Great Britain will take the lead in making the 21st a genuinely peaceful century free from nuclear weapons.” The full text of the letter is at http://www.colin-ross.org.uk/news/001093.html

Posted in Op-eds | 16 Comments

Recent Comments

  • User AvatarAlex Sabine 17th May - 3:11am
    If the reports are to be believed, IDS has already dismissed this apparently back-of-the-envelope costing by Steve Hilton. That is hardly surprising since he has...
  • User AvatarElliot Bidgood 17th May - 1:42am
    Thanks for the information about the govt consultation, Carol, hadn't heard about that. Just filled it out.
  • User Avataralistair 17th May - 12:37am
    Where does Cameron get his advisors from, Coulson, Hilton? It's like some parallel valueless universe.
  • User AvatarRichard Dean 16th May - 11:49pm
    I wonder if we might all appreciate a bit of light entertainment at this stage of the debate? Here are the lyrics of “Visions of...
  • User AvatarNicola Prigg 16th May - 11:21pm
    Was his first speech to conference as leader recorded and put online anywhere?