GP joins blockade of nuclear sub base (From Evesham Journal)

GP joins blockade of nuclear sub base

1:04pm Thursday 18th January 2007 in News

A VALE doctor is travelling to Scotland to help blockade the Faslane nuclear submarine base.

Frances Hogwood will be joining 30 other health professionals next Thursday and Friday to protest against the replacement of Trident.

The GP, who worked in a practice in Chipping Campden but now works in Tewkesbury, said: "This is a deadly issue with enormous health implications. The public have not been informed or been given a proper chance to debate it.

"There are ill-equipped and exhausted British troops in Afghanistan yet Parliament is being asked to approve new nuclear weaponry which has no military value, no legal justification and is likely to cost a colossal £75 billion."

During her stay, Dr Hogwood plans to help set up a "Health not Nuclear Holocaust" clinic in a shopping centre in Glasgow.

Doctors and nurses will talk to passers-by and hand out prescriptions for the prevention of nuclear war. They also plan to speak and leaflet hospitals and GP practices.

Dr Hogwood said she and her group are intending to blockade entrances to the base and are prepared to be arrested. Nearly 500 health professionals from all over the country have already been arrested at a Faslane 365 continuous blockade.

Faslane 365 is a civil resistance project applying public pressure for the disarmament of Britain's nuclear weapons. It began a one year blockade last October.