A Non-nuclear, Non-NATO Britain: Is there an electoral pathway?

This chapter examines why both the polarised positions of the pro-nuclear/pro-North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) conventional wisdom and of the anti-nuclear/anti-NATO hard left are inadequate. It discusses the conventional wisdom and the anti-NATO left that sustained denuclearisation and uncoupling of British policy from nuclear alliances can only be envisaged as a ‘rolling programme’. The chapter explores the evidence about British voters’ complex attitudes towards alternative defence policies, showing what the potential for progress to denuclearisation may be under the mid 1987 political conditions. It then examines a number of scenarios for implementing a rolling programme of denuclearisation, with particular reference to the political conditions succeeding the next general election - or perhaps the next two elections if, as seems quite likely, the political parties prove unable to adapt quickly to minority government or coalition situations. Strategic thinking always confronts political parties with acute problems on issues such as nuclear disarmament.