Lancaster peace campaigners 'rename' Millennium Bridge on 80th anniversary of the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
Members and supporters of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) gathered on the Millennium Bridge over the River Lune to mark the 80th anniversary of the dropping of the first atomic bombs on the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945.
They shared readings, silence, and songs in remembrance of all who have died and suffered in the wars of the past and all who are dying and suffering in wars today.
They renamed the Millennium Bridge the ‘Peace’ Bridge for the evening, and scattered flowers and petals into the Lune in further remembrance of the dead.
Philip Gilligan, co-ordinator of South Lakeland and Lancaster District CND group, said: “We live in extremely dangerous times. The only nuclear-armed state in the Middle East, Israel, continues to commit war crimes on a massive scale every day in Palestine.
"Russia, a country holding in excess of five thousand nuclear warheads, continues with its war in Ukraine.
"And, while our NHS crumbles and child poverty accelerates, Keir Starmer's government says it needs to get us 'ready for war' by squandering an extra £15billion on nuclear weapons in order to please a US president holding launch codes for another five thousand nuclear warheads.
"Meanwhile, Starmer’s Government is planning to purchase nuclear-capable jets to be available to fly NATO ‘nuclear missions’, and continues to licence local companies to export materials used by Israel in its brutal attacks in Gaza and by France in production of nuclear weapons.
“We don’t need a Government readying us for nuclear annihilation, We need a Government that will work for nuclear disarmament and a peaceful future for our children and grandchildren.”