Letter: Greenham hijacked

Keith Hudson
Wednesday 17 September 1997 23:02 BST
Comments

Sir: Both Julian Lewis (Letters, 16 September) and the Greenham women seem to have missed the point of the ceremony to take down a part of the fence around Greenham Common last weekend.

Whether you agree with the Greenham women that their protests ended the Cold War or with Mr Lewis that deployment of nuclear forces was the cause, or indeed with many others that the real reason was the triumph of capitalism over Communism as an economic system, the removal of nuclear weapons from Greenham happened many years ago and was not relevant to the weekend's ceremony.

Instead, what we were doing was celebrating the success of Newbury District Council in achieving a transfer of the Greenham and Crookham Commons into their ownership. The negotiations were carried out between the new Greenham Common Trust, the district council and the Ministry of Defence. The Greenham women played no part in these negotiations and the Government was the main cause of the negotiations being so prolonged.

It is a sad reflection of the desperate need for good publicity of both the protesters and the Conservative Party that both should have tried to hijack what was really a people's triumph achieved through their local council.

DAVID RENDEL MP

(Lib Dem, Newbury)

House of Commons

London SW1

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