Mike Hancock News
On the anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima, Mike Hancock MP urges Portsmouth to join worldwide campaign to get rid of nuclear bombs
On the 63rd anniversary (Wednesday August 6th 2008) of the destruction of Hiroshima by the world's first atomic bomb which killed 140,000 people, Lib Dem MP, Mike Hancock, is calling for Portsmouth to join a coalition of cities to campaign to banish nuclear bombs from the face of the planet by 2020.
The “Mayors for Peace” network is a campaign of currently 2,368 cities in 120 countries and regions around the world, headed by Hiroshima mayor Tadatoshi Akiba. The main goal of the network is to prevent the repetition of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bomb tragedies. Mike Hancock who is also a Portsmouth City Councillor will be putting forward a motion to Portsmouth City Council in the autumn asking the city to join the network and support the campaign. Across the UK, 47 local councils are members of the network from the Shetland Islands to Exeter.
Mike Hancock also recently supported a parliamentary motion (Early Day Motion 2076) deploring the new Mayor of London, Boris Johnson’s decision to withdraw from the network. Mike Hancock said: “I think this decision by the new Mayor of London is just plain wrong. Instead we should be uniting as individuals, communities and cities across countries to push for nuclear bombs to be scrapped. And as a united campaign, I believe we can become a force that no leader of a country can ignore. I am sure many people in Portsmouth will still remember the devastation that even conventional bombing caused here during the Second World War. It would be great therefore if Portsmouth City Council could support this vital campaign.
“I am very annoyed with Boris Johnson’s decision. This is not the message this country and our capital city should be sending to the world. London should stand for peace rather than nuclear war. In four years time, London will be host to the Olympics. And above all the Olympics is about peace and the human race coming together to unite and triumph over war. I hope Portsmouth can, unlike Mayor Johnson send a signal that throughout Britain, people want these terrible weapons of mass destruction, for that is what nuclear bomb’s are, scrapped. And I hope that we will never again see the killing and maiming of people by them like we did at Hiroshima and Nagasaki.”
The 47 cities or local councils (excluding London) that are members of the “Mayors for Peace” network are: Bala, Belfast, Birmingham, Bradford, Brighton&Hove, Bristol, Cambridge, Chepstow, Chester, Coventry, Derby, Dudley, Eastbourne, Edinburgh, Exeter, Fylde, Glasgow, Gwynedd, Hebden Royd, Kirklees, Lambeth, Leeds, Lincoln, Londonderry, Lydney, Manchester, Medway, Middlesbrough, Midlothian, Mold, Nailsworth, Newport, Northampton, North Tyneside, Norwich, Oxford, Ramsgate, Reading, Rotherham, Seaford, Sheffield, Shetland Islands, Slough Borough, South Ayrshire, Stockport, Strabane, Stroud.
Early Day Motion (EDM) 2076 states: “That this House deplores the decision of Boris Johnson to withdraw London from the worldwide Mayors for Peace network; believes that elected representatives of cities in all continents declaring their opposition to nuclear weapons is a positive development in promoting disarmament and peace; and deeply regrets Mayor Johnson's decision and the message it sends to the world from London.”
More on the “Mayors for Peace” campaign can be got from their website www.mayorsforpeace.org/english/index.htmShare this page:
