David Cameron sees reds under the bed

David Cameron entered a diplomatic row last night as he equated the future threat from China with that from Iran. David Miliband was quick to condemn the remarks.

David Cameron entered a diplomatic row during the leaders’ debate last night as he equated the future threat from China with that from Iran. Foreign Secretary David Miliband was quick to condemn the move.

During the debate, speaking in defence of the Conservative party policy to “renew britain’s submarine-based nuclear deterrent, based on the Trident missile system”, David Cameron said:

“Are we really happy to say that we’d give up our independent nuclear deterrent when we don’t know what is going to happen with Iran, we can’t be certain of the future in China?”

Watch it:

Foreign Secretary David Miliband was quick to condemn Cameron’s words:

“To put China and Iran in the same bracket is an insult to a follow permanent member of the UN security council and to a country with whom we have just announced a close strategic relationship. David Cameron should withdraw this slur now.”

The Conservatives issued a statement: “David Cameron was demonstrating the extent of uncertainties in the world, not saying China is a threat to the U.K.”

Scrapping Trident would not mean losing an independent nuclear deterrent. As Nick Clegg made clear on the Today programme last week, “you could equip the Astute submarine”. Left Foot Forward has estimated that £45 billion could be saved through this approach.

UPDATE 12.55:

Anna Chen writes for Labour List:

“Is Cameron seriously equating China with “rogue state” Iran? May I ask you in your saner moments, David (assuming you have any): with all the money they’re pouring into saving our sorry skint skins, why would China want to nuke its own investment?”

UPDATE 19.04:

Mike Ion has an interesting take on why “the scrapping of Trident could end up being a vote winner and not a vote loser.”

33 Responses to “David Cameron sees reds under the bed”

  1. Radical Muslim :: The Political Debate :: April :: 2010

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  3. Anon E Mouse

    Will – I agree that to have a SDR and not include Trident would be madness but to even suggest that we may relinquish our independent deterrent would be even worse.

    On another thread here someone comments that we couldn’t launch without the US involved. Whilst I agree that Polaris required regular testing in the States and I’m sure that Trident (D3 version) has been tested in the same way we certainly had total control over the launches.

    The importance of MAD is just as valid today although with nukes in the hands of radical muslim governments it certainly changes the game.

    (What’s happened here is that Clegg has not made it clear in the debates exactly what his policies are and if Cameron or Brown don’t expose them this week then neither deserve to be PM imo. To just say “They are the old politics” when he is clearly the same is a contradiction and why Cameron didn’t go for him I do not know.)

    Finally current military thinking is that China will pose the greatest threat in the future – Cameron is absolutely right – it’s just that you guys don’t have contacts within the military or if you do they’re not the right ones or if they are then they are not telling. It would take China decades to catch up with the US so no need to worry but in terms to military thinking to suggest that China is not considered the major future threat is simply naive and wrong.

  4. Foetus Cameron

    RT @Jon2aylor: Cameron's scaremongering about the threat posed by China shows he'd be a liability on the world stage. #SameOldTories http://bit.ly/br2viW

  5. Jonathan Taylor

    Cameron's scaremongering about the threat posed by China shows he'd be a liability on the world stage. #SameOldTories http://bit.ly/br2viW

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