United Kingdom

The Ministry of Defence of Britain released the numbers of conscientious objection applications since 2001, following a Freedom of Information request. According to the information provided by the MOD, there have in total been nine CO applications from 2001 until 2010, of which six have been successful. Between 1990 and 2000, 13 Royal Navy personnel and one soldier applied for conscientious objector status, a separate Freedom of Information response shows.

Michael Lyons, a medical worker in the British navy, was denied recognition as conscientious objector on 17 December 2010. Michael Lyons joined up in 2005, aged 18. Since then he has stopped to
think more about his work, partly prompted by researching information about the war in Afghanistan after being told some months ago that he would be deployed there in 2011. He applied for conscientious objection after reading of the "enormous under-reporting of civilian casualties in the conflict I was about to enter", according to the Buxton Advisor.

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By Mitzi Bales, peace activist and member of War Resisters’ International

The Drone Wars conference was held on 18th September in London, UK and was organised by Fellowship of Reconciliation (England). The conference brought together academics, peace campaigners, NGOs and concerned citizens to discuss the growing military use of UAVs (Unmanned Arial Vehicles), commonly known as drones.
The conference aimed to share information on a variety of aspects of the use of drones, to

Abi Haque

A careers fair at the University of Edinburgh was closed down last week after the organisers’ decision to invite the world’s largest arms firm to the event triggered a nonviolent protest by students. The students laid down in front of the stall run by BAE Systems in a symbolic die-in.

The German Marshall Fund of the United States annually does a survey on important "transatlantic trends", which can make an interesting read. One of the questions asked is: "Please tell me to what extent do you agree with the following: Under some conditions, was is necessary to obtain justice." (Q29.2). The answers are quite revealing (see graphic below).

Three Christian peace activists were arrested at AWE Aldermaston after opening the base for disarmament. The three, Fr. Martin Newell (43), Passionist priest from the London Catholic Worker, Susan Clarkson (63) of the Oxford Catholic Worker, and Chris Cole (47) also from Oxford , cut a doorway into the outer fence of nuclear base. They group then attached a sign saying ‘Open for Disarmament: All Welcome’.

That Dark and Stormy Night

On January 17th 2009 six people broke into EDO MBM/ITT in Brighton and caused £189,000 worth of damage to computers, servers, lathes and other equipment. The activists, calling themselves the ‘decommissioners’, took their action in response to the Israeli assault on Gaza which had claimed 1,400 lives by the 17th. EDO MBM/ITT manufactures the arming unit for the Israeli F16 bombrack.

Court in the Act

Ian Prichard, CAAT’s Research Co-ordinator, describes his day at Farnborough 2010: an arms fair operating alongside a civil aerospace exhibition, all obscured by an airshow in the UK.

This is a clickable map of past, present, and planned nuclear power stations in Britain, plus important sites of Britain's nuclear weapons programme.

This map is based on OpenStreetMap, and uses OpenLayers for placing of the icons. You can click on an icon to see more information. You can also zoom in and out (see zoombar on the left), or move around on the map.

Albert Beale, from Peace Pledge Union (British WRI affiliate), and CAAT activist

Most major corporations in Britain are owned by shareholders who, between them, own millions of shares in the company. Sometimes even one individual shareholder will hold millions of shares - yet other people might only own one.

Who are these shareholders? The very largest ones tend to be other corporate bodies - such as pension funds, investment funds which invest money on behalf of lots of small savers, and other companies. Then there are rich individuals. Then there are well-off (but not very rich) individuals who have some of their regular savings invested in a company.

BP (formerly British Petroleum) has become one of the world’s most controversial giant corporations because of its involvement in a series of major environmental disasters and industrial accidents. The company has been the target of intense criticism for its role in the April 2010 explosion at a drilling platform in the Gulf of Mexico that killed 11 workers and unleashed a vast underwater oil leak that flowed largely unchecked for weeks.