Originally Posted by
Eric the Half a Bee
Aren't there only 9 countries with nuclear armaments left in the world? Let's be honest, there's almost certainly no scenario where Britain would "strike first", so the only time we'd be likely to use it is if we'd already been nuked in the first place; it would be purely retaliatory, "you've killed millions of Brits so we'll do the same to you". That's a scary thought.
If Trident is a prevention rather than a retaliation, then how many attempts has it prevented so far and how many is it likely to prevent in the future? How much of the fear of retaliation is likely to stop a mad dictator? If the answer to the last question is little/none, then Trident is a waste of time completely.