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Don’t believe the hype about nuclear weapons | Letters

We must continue to challenge claims that nuclear weapons are a ‘necessity’, says Caroline Lucas, while Gerry Weston says they don’t protect us from Russian aggression and Michael Newman says they didn’t end the second world warPolly Toynbee is right to point out that while nuclear war has been pushed down the “league table of fear”, most recently by concerns about the climate crisis, the nuclear threat itself remains “as great or greater” and should be the subject of much more urgent debate (I changed my mind on banning the bomb, but the threat of nuclear war is growing – and so is complacency, 7 August). All the more surprising, then, that she overlooks some of the more promising steps towards nuclear disarmament.In particular, momentum is building behind the UN treaty on the prohibition of nuclear weapons, which came into force in 2021 and is now supported by nearly half the countries in the world. The treaty was the focus of much of the debate in Hiroshima, where I attended the 80th anniversary commemorations, and it deserves to be much better known. Continue reading...

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