At 12 noon on Thursday, the Abingdon Peace Group gathered in the Market Place to mark five years since the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons became international law, in January 2021.

Back in 2021, with Covid about, the group held a socially distanced event in a mostly deserted Market Place.

This week’s gathering echoed that earlier moment, but without the masks. Progress has been made since the treaty came into force. 74 nation states — more than half the countries of the world — have ratified it. The UK has not signed up.

Behind the treaty stands the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN). Its campaigning helped bring the treaty into being, and in 2017 ICAN’s work was recognised with the Nobel Peace Prize. More information is available at www.icanw.org.