Letters: Time we started to put people first

Friday August 6 was the tragic commemoration of the nuclear bombing of Hiroshima and today the bombing of Nagasaki.

These war crimes led to decades of suffering caused by the production, testing and deployment of thousands of nuclear weapons that continue to threaten the global community.

There are now nine countries spending an enormous $73 billion per year to maintain and modernise their nuclear arsenals in breach of the Non-Proliferation Treaty, increasing the profits of corporations like BAe Systems at public expense.

Many of our pensions funds and savings are used to bankroll these weapons of mass destruction. Our Government refuses to join the majority of nations working toward complete and total nuclear disarmament by signing the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons and we are now often referred to as a rogue nation.

Recent research linked our reliance on dangerous, wasteful and expensive nuclear energy to the need to keep the nuclear weapon industry supplied with fissile material and nuclear engineers.

So it is not surprising that our mendacious government now wants us all to pay for EDF’s new nuclear power plant in Suffolk through a surcharge on all our energy bills, no matter where we buy our electricity from.

I have chosen to buy my electricity from Good Energy precisely because it invests in truly renewable energy through solar, wind and hydro power and not in nuclear.

It is wrong and morally bankrupt to force all electricity users to pay for an outdated, dangerous, expensive, nuclear energy programme that should be scrapped when we have a cheaper and safer system able to supply all our energy needs.

It is time we all demanded the dismantling of all nuclear power plants and nuclear weapons and supported a truly safe and renewable energy system. It is time to clean up our act and put people and planet first, nor corporate profits.

Angie Zelter, Knighton