nuclear attack on britain- how likely

[blackbunny]

Posting this in AIBU for traffic.
With all the current unrest in the world, I've found myself obsessing today about the possibility of Britain being attacked.
Now, I suffer from depression and anxiety that is controlled by ADs. My husband has serious health issues, undergoing chemo atm and I'm naturally worried about the outcome. Till today, I've been coping with my feelings and emotions well. But today, seemingly out of the blue I'm haunted by the fear of a nuclear attack, can't seem to shake off the feelings of dread and fear.
I know in my head the reality is remote, but I suppose what I need to hear is that that is right.
Can anybody reassure me? Please help.

There's a preppers thread?????? Where?????

I'd like to hear your reasoning mpsw!

This thread is helping me quite a bit.
I have anxiety and this issue is something that has, over the years, and still now terrifies me. Not sure why it's become such a fear/fascination to me really.

Not going to happen but if for some very strange bizarre reason it did (which it won't) then there would be no winners. We'd all be dead, everything dead apart from cockroaches (apparently they are supposed to survive nuclear attack......But that could be an urban legend.) Planet Earth barren or blown to smithereens.
So what's the point in having nuclear war when there are no spoils/prizes to be had at the end of it.
Mind you depending on your philosophy/pov, this world could just be a game like the Sims & we don't exist in reality, a computer game played by aliens so we could pop up again in Sims 5: The New Beginning.
This could be hell & we all just go on to the next plane/dimension & everything starts again.
We could be brains in a vat & all start again.
We could have accidentally slipped into a parallel universe & then we'll slip back into our real universe. We'll either have no recollection of the parallel universe or have some dream like memories.
Or none of the above apply & we are real so we'll all be dead & nothing will exist......apart from the blooming cockroaches!

So I would try not to worry. Easier said than done but really do not worry.

I'm afraid I don't have an answer fir you but I just wanted to send you some hugs OP. My DS has an anxiety disorder and has been so distressed about this very thing this week that we've had to involve the crisis team

The Cuban missile crisis was far more dangerous

Black it will not happen.

Look up MAD (Mutually Assured Destruction. Copied this from Wikipedia to give you the general idea.

"Mutual assured destruction or mutually assured destruction (MAD) is a doctrine of military strategy and national security policy in which a full-scale use of nuclear weapons by two or more opposing sides would cause the complete annihilation of both the attacker and the defender (see pre-emptive nuclear strike and second strike).[1] It is based on the theory of deterrence, which holds that the threat of using strong weapons against the enemy prevents the enemy's use of those same weapons. The strategy is a form of Nash equilibrium in which, once armed, neither side has any incentive to initiate a conflict or to disarm."

Basically, if Russia wants to blow us up (Which they don't) they are pretty much guaranteed that they will be blown up in retaliation and the world will end. Why risk it? Putin is an intelligent man. Not a man most people in the west understand, but he is not stupid. He understand MAD very well. The power lies in the fear that he will blow us all up, not the reality.

I was a student in London when the 1987 hurricane hit.

I woke up to a blacked out city (my radio only picked up static), and the howling wind. The 'phone was dead.

For a good 15 minutes I was convinced we had been bombed.

(A vignette for anyone who wants to know how different things are today).

After frantic retuning of the radio,l I picked up BBC Essex, which explained the situation ... after a few minutes of 1980s BBC local radio, I found myself wishing it had been a bomb ....

The chances of some rogue state nuking a Britain out of the blue are very, very small. For a start, no "small" nuclear-armed country has enough weapons to cause devastation to the UK, nor the wherewithal to get them here (do you really think an enemy aeroplane loaded with a nuke would go unnoticed over British airspace? Nor do they have the submarine or long range missile capability). The whole suitcase nuke thing is bollocks IMO and anyway would only cause a limited amount of damage. The only countries with enough nuclear power to destroy the Uk are Russia and the US, and whatever your opinions of them, and there's plenty to worry about, their starting a nuclear war is still vanishingly unlikely.

I do believe small scale use of nuclear weaponry could happen elsewhere on the planet, but WW3 in that form? Not likely.

banging

Not just a thread, but a whole topic:

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/preppers

If it helps, my brain does this journey every time I think about nuclear war:

Nuclear war -> Cold War-> That scene from Grease2 where there's a song in a useless looking bomb shelter entirely about shagging in case there's a war tomorrow -> 'I need a coooooooool rider.'

It's almost guaranteed to stop the fear of everything bar another Grease sequel or remake.

It is a pretty fucked up situation at the moment, and has been so for quite some time. We, the little people have little or no control over this, and never have had. Fear is our worst enemy I'm afraid.. pun intended! Looking at the history of nuclear weapons it would not seem logical for a country with this capability to use them on another such country (the MAD spoken of), and I'll advised to use them on other less equipped states, due to poor taste, alignment pacts, and geopolitical backlash. Only twice has this happened, at the end of WW2 on Japan, but this was before there were any other contenders. The chance is smaller than we would believe, and there are plenty of possible natural disasters from asteroids to tsunamis, the chances of which to happen in UK are also fairly small enough to get on with our lives and not think too much about them. The best thing we can do in these troubled times is focus on the things that matter to us, like family and friends, things we enjoy doing, and be thankful for our time on this amazing planet earth

It's very unlikely. Maybe about as likely as you winning the jackpot on the lottery (twice), OP.

It's also worth pointing out that we were far, far closer to nuclear attack multiple times throughout last century than we ever have been since the Cold War ended. Including right now. Russia doesn't want war, China certainly don't want war. North Korea's nuclear weapons are dodgy at best and wouldn't reach the UK anyway. Same for India and Pakistan, they just have them to look menacingly at each other. Trump won't blow us up (and I would be more worried about him than Putin, in all honesty). He needs all the mates he can get right now. So that just leaves France and possibly Israel. We can never say never, of course, not in a world in which nuclear weapons exist, but it is extremely unlikely.

Ironically, nuclear weapons have been keeping us safe from war since WW2 - they are a great deterrent to war.

Strategic nuclear weapons are highly unlikely to be used against another nuclear armed state. They actually prevent war. If you look at the history of the 19th Century you see war constantly being used as a tool of policy between advanced states. This is because the elites were able to wage war without any personal consequences. Consider the Kaiser for example. After WWI he escaped to Holland where he lived in comfort until 1944.

If there were a nuclear war, you and I would be vaporised immediately, or in the worst case live a miserable few weeks longer. But not our elites! Emerging from their bunkers they would have to rebuild civilisation. No more banquets and comfortable life for them! They would inherit the ruined world they had created.

Back in the 1970s we used to think the bunkers made them the lucky ones. But the truth is quite the opposite. In a nuclear war we would be the lucky ones. And this fact is not lost on our elites. The prospect of nuclear conflict terrifies them even more than it does us.

I think a lot of people are feeling anxious right now about all the news headlines.

What I would say, is there's absolutely no point worrying about this kind of thing. If there is a nuclear attack, there is nothing you can do to stop it.

The one thing everybody in the world has in common is that we'll all die one day - so rather than worrying about when that will be and what the circumstances are, try to focus on making the most out of the precious time you have on this earth.

Spent time with family and friends, spend your time watching positive tv shows / things you enjoy, reading, listening to music, appreciating nature.

Don't waste your time worrying about the things you can't change.

I am not going to worry about this.

I was a child/grew up with this stuff in the 60s/70s and I saw the programmes like Threads etc.

I'm not living my life in fear.

I did that 40 odd years ago as a teenager.

Salmo, I'm in the same position. Maybe it's like not being able to wear a fashion's new incarnation if you wore it first time around. I was consumed with worry in the 70s and 80s, can't bring myself to break a sweat about it this time.

It doesn't even make the top 100 on my list of things to worry about. I really think it's extremely unlikely.

Rancid; I know the likelihood of some other country developing nuclear weapons may be remote, but although, for example, Israel have been said to have them, they haven't officially confirmed it have they? I just think the focus is on countries like Iran, Iraq etc to make sure they don't develop them, but I really don't think it's inconceivable that some other country could slip under the radar - I could be wrong. I hope so.

I was a child of the 60s. I held hands round Greenham Common in the 80s.

I feel a million times safer now than then.

I can imagine Israel has the capacity to develop nuclear weapons, but that's not necessarily the same as possessing usable ones.

Yup hare - I'm just mentally eye-rolling I'm sorry to say.

Been there, done that and now have a fatalistic approach to life when it comes to "World Events".

I'm sorry that people are experiencing extreme anxiety but you have to make a mental choice: either be paralysed with fear or get on with your daily life and hope to hell it all gets sorted.

The world's in a very dangerous state. North Korea is ruled by a lunatic. He could engineer situations where USA has to support Japan with force. China gets involved - which side? Meanwhile China is appropriating bits of the South China Sea. Nuclear weapons available.
Syria - USA/Europe/Turkey and Russia. USA and Israel at odds with Russia. Nuclear weapons available. Nightmare.
Pakistan and India both have nuclear weapons and a volatile relationship.
I could go on. It really isn't a case of 'Oh, Russia won't take on the USA.'
The causes of war are complicated. Look at the causes of the First World War and see how easily first nearby countries get involved, then the rest - as an excuse to. Ditto WW2.
In the 80s, I did stock pile tinned goods, candles and water etc thanks to the pamphlets we got preparing for Armageddon. Protect and Survive, anyone? Put paper over your windows in the event of a nuclear bomb. Shelter under the stairs with all of your family. Can't remember toilet possibilities. Put dead bodies in plastic sacks and put outside.
Scared me rigid. Now I would stock enough of the above to see me the first few days until there was a direct nuclear strike on Southampton which I would be praying for...
.