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Gran lays down the law

Paul R Taylor
15/ 6/2007

A WOMAN of 89 has been arrested for the first time in 60 years of campaigning against nuclear weapons.

Great grandmother Betty Tebbs, from Prestwich, used thumbcuffs to lock herself to other Manchester CND members and lay on the road outside the Trident nuclear submarine base at Faslane, near Glasgow.

Betty, who began her campaign against nuclear weapons after she was horrified by the 1945 bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, said: "It went marvellously and we blocked the road for about an hour.

"The police were very good to me. I was taken to Clydebank station but released after a few hours because of my age. The officer asked me if I had any heart problems and I told her `only when I think of Trident'."

Betty was arrested with fellow Manchester CND members Neville Ball, 71, Alan Johnson, 70, Matt Favier, 32, Matt Forsett, 32, and Ben Gilchrist, 33. All were charged but released with an official warning.

The demonstration aimed to draw attention to government plans to replace Trident at a cost of £76bn.

Betty, whose husband Len died in the Second World War, said: "I was disgusted when America dropped the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, so I began campaigning door to door in 1947.

"I have attended and organised countless demonstrations over the years and I'd never have believed I'd still be campaigning now - we weren't even sure we'd still be here or that our children would grow up.

"After the war I said I was going to work my whole life for peace. I don't think there's anything more important than that."

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