Time for a more determined stand on nuclear weapon’s…

So, the new ICM poll is out and the headline figures show that the numbers for ‘Others’ are down with their decline boosting us and the Conservatives by two points each. It seems the impact of the expenses scandal is waning although I still think it will feature heavily in certain seats when the election is actually called.

Also, Labour is polling consistently mid – high 20’s now which show a slight solidification of their numbers following a stormy June. Actually for those of us hoping for an early election this is a good thing; Gordon Brown’s judgement on these things has proved to be spectacularly bad and I still feel there is an outside chance a poll spike/recovery of economic confidence might breed over-confidence.

However, the story that The Guardian is leading with is 54% for nuclear disarmament. This doesn’t surprise me at all because during the 1980’s it was plausible to invoke the threat of another nuclear armed super power striking against us; now, however the possibility of terrorist appropriation and use actually focuses peoples minds of the real danger the weapons pose just by their very existence. They are also ineffectual and useless against a pretty stateless enemy and the aforementioned danger of nuclear materials falling into terrorist hands makes them less an asset and more a dangerous liability in most peoples eyes.

All of this shows that there is much more scope for Nick Clegg to actually pave the way on this issue rather than put a ‘public finance prudence’ line forward. Rather than being quite timid and positing this as the reason there is scope for him to take a principled line and really push the disarmament cause; saying there has never been a better time to take disarmament seriously. So, Nick, how about it?