In May the (now disgraced ex-)Minster for War, Liam Fox announced the Trident Alternatives Review, with much fanfare from the beard and sandal brigade. Unfortunately six months down the line and Liam Fox's replacement Philip Hammond has now stated that the review will not be made public because of the “highly classified technical, intelligence and policy information covering extremely sensitive national security issues”. Essentially the Tories are sweeping one of their few sops to their Lib Dem 'partners' under the carpet in an attempt to stifle debate.
The government has bought into an expensive, unnecessary, like-for-like replacement for Trident (so much so they've already spent £6 billion on it) so any semblance of democracy at this stage would just be an irritant to proceedings. At best a nuclear deterrent is a costly white elephant, at worst it is a (almost literally) ticking time-bomb. Even if it were fully independent (which neither Trident nor its likely replacement is) there are no realistic scenarios where the UK would actually deploy them. So – why spend the money?
The reasons for unquestioningly replacing Trident are much the same as those for hugely subsidising the arms trade in general – having a large metaphorical wang to wave about on the world stage. The UK no longer has enough economic or military power to force other nations to their knees, so the only way to get their attention is to be the one selling them their weapons and having 'the bomb' up your sleeve – even if you actually need it.
Unfortunately when it comes to a choice between investing in hospitals, schools and support services on one hand and a massive silver phallus in the other it's obvious which a bunch of old Etonians are gonna choose.