A REITIRED GP from Taunton is today (Thursday) joining a health professionals blockade of the Faslane Trident Submarine Base in Scotland.

Dr John Anderson, a member of the Medical Campaign Against Nuclear Weapons (now Medact) and a Quaker, was arrested at Faslane last October during a similar protest against British nuclear weapons and the Government's decision to upgrade the Trident system.

Dr Anderson said: "Our Independent Nuclear Deterrent' is neither independent nor a deterrent.

"No weapon, however horrifying, can ever deter a terrorist or clandestine attack.

"Developing and maintaining Trident renders us less safe because other states are encouraged to try to join the nuclear club.

" How can we demand that they remain nuclear nobodies' while we replace our weapons of mass destruction?"

The 30-strong group will vigil and leaflet at the gates during the daily shift-changes at the Faslane base.

While at the gates they will also celebrate Burns Night with a party, piper, and haggis and set up a Treatment not Trident' Clinic in a Glasgow shopping centre, taking blood pressure and handing out prescriptions for the prevention of nuclear war, prescribing dialogue for disarmament.

Some members intend to blockade the base and be arrested.