‘Mealy-mouthed’ apology from Peer for Trident-Auschwitz comparison

A senior Plaid Cymru peer has compared the effects of a Trident submarine base to a Nazi death camp.

Lord Wigley was commenting on reports that the nuclear weapons system could be relocated from Scotland to Wales.

Speaking the day after the world marked 70 years since the end of the Holocaust, the peer said that “this week we have been remembering what happened in Germany before the war, no doubt there were many jobs provided in Auschwitz and places like that but that didn’t justify their existence and neither does nuclear weapons justify having them in Pembrokeshire.”

He was challenged as to why he was comparing a Trident base to the notorious death camp, the politician replied: “The number of people that will be killed by Trident will be infinitely more, and that the point I was making was this, that you have to consider the nature of the work and not just that a job exists.”

In a statement released later, Lord Wigley said: “I am certainly sorry if my remarks were open to any misinterpretation and I apologise for any offence that has been caused.”

Former Welsh Secretary David Jones branded the apology as “mealy-mouthed”, and said: “Nothing that ever happens in this country could ever be as appalling as what the Nazis did.

“But to say it at Holocaust memorial time is even worse.”