<p>Seventy years ago, on an island off Australia, we started something we couldn't finish. This is the story of Britain's nuclear deterrent, Trident — why we have it and why we can't let go of it.</p> <p dir="ltr">Keep More Jam Tomorrow going by contributing to our tip jar at <a href= "https://ko-fi.com/morejamtomorrow">Ko-fi</a>. Sweet.</p> <p dir="ltr"><a href= "https://www.lse.ac.uk/ideas/people/mary-kaldor">Prof Mary Kaldor</a> is Director of the Conflict Research Programme at LSE IDEAS.</p> <p dir="ltr">Dr Matthew Grant is Reader and Head of the School of Philosophy, Historical and Interdisciplinary Studies at the University of Essex. His forthcoming book Britain's Cold War Home Front: Citizens and the State will be published by Oxford University Press, and he is the author of National Service Life Stories: Masculinity, Class, and the Memory of Conscription in Britain.</p> <p dir="ltr">The <a href= "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KdmDRKMvp0w">Operation Hurricane public information movie</a> (1953) is available on YouTube, as is <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d8D2j9OFbCo">Bertrand Russell's 1959 speech</a> at the Manchester Free Trade Hall and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qVbQj3wMrW8">The Prime Minister's TOP SECRET trip to a nuclear submarine</a> (10 Downing Street). Parliamentary speeches read by Seth Thévoz are in Hansard. The <a href= "https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/49056279">extract from the West Australian newspaper</a> is in the National Library of Australia.</p> <p dir="ltr">I also drew on Suzanne Doyle's <a href= "https://research-portal.uea.ac.uk/files/128540858/Accepted_manuscript.pdf"> Preserving the Global Nuclear Order: The Trident Agreements and the Arms Control Debate, 1977-82</a> (International History Review), Matthew Grant's <a href= "https://historyandpolicy.org/policy-papers/papers/upgrading-britains-nuclear-deterrent-from-v-bombers-to-trident-replacement/"> Upgrading Britain's nuclear deterrent: from V-Bombers to Trident replacement</a> (History and Policy), Nick Ritchie's <a href= "https://www.nuclearinfo.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Trident-and-British-Identity.pdf"> Trident and British Identity: Letting go of nuclear weapons</a> and Ian Davis' <a href= "https://www.sipri.org/sites/default/files/files/misc/NATO-Trident-Report-15_11.pdf"> The British Bomb and NATO: Six Decades of Contributing to NATO's Strategic Nuclear Deterrent</a> (SIPRI/ Nuclear Education Trust). The Commons library briefing <a href= "https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/cbp-8010/"> Replacing the UK's Nuclear Deterrent: Progress of the Dreadnought Class</a> was also useful.</p> <p> </p>