Dear <<First Name>> <<Last Name>>,

> Peace Shop closed

In light of the current ongoing public health crisis, Exeter CND has taken the decision to close the Peace Shop for the time being, in order to protect the health of our shop volunteers and customers. We will be monitoring the situation as it develops and we'll let you know as and when things change. Hopefully we will be able to reopen in the not-too-distant future. Please keep an eye on our Facebook / Twitter / Instagram pages for any updates.

CND has closed the national office in London and the staff team are all working remotely (click here for details) but we continue the campaign nevertheless. Dr Kate Hudson (general secretary of CND) has written an opinion piece (click here to read it) in which she argues that whilst "successive governments of different political persuasions have all rightly identified the threat which pandemics pose. [...] it is clear that the necessary level of investment has not been put into preparing for this major risk. After a decade of austerity, we are all aware of the inadequate funding of our NHS; the situation is bad enough in ‘normal’ times but during the coronavirus crisis it has disastrous consequences."

We find ourselves in a major crisis situation where government has chosen to pour £205 billion (and likely to continue increasing) into replacing the Trident nuclear weapons system, leaving the health system chronically underfunded and unable to meet the challenge of a pandemic.
 

> Annual General Meeting postponed
We were just in the planning stages for our Annual General Meeting - I was getting ready to send out the notice of the AGM which was going to be on Monday 20 April in the Newtown Community Association building in Belmont Park, but this is now postponed in light of the coronavirus pandemic. As and when we are able to reschedule it, we will let you know.

In the meantime, we still have to continue paying the shop rent, without any income from sales. If you can afford to, please would you consider increasing your regular standing order or making a one-off donation to help us cover the costs while the shop remains closed?