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.

Cheesenacho It's what the navy and other companies are there for! FFS, the RN is NOT a company, it's a fighting force, as are the Army and RAF.

Those with family members in the Armed Forces wouldn't be broadcasting what was going on, as they wouldn't know. Yes, HM Forces would be deployed (you wouldn't get private companies deploying!!!), but that is usual. If it got any where near nuclear war, the govt would have made it plain anyway.

NB: The Royal Marines are part of the RN.

You should be reassured by ISIS-affiliated men driving trucks into crowds - odd as it seems, because it means in the West that's the best they can do. A massive organisation dedicated to spreading terror and using violence, and that's it? A plan a five year old could come up with? Because for anything more sophisticated they can't get the people, or the equipment, or security forces intercept their plan before they get anywhere. Have you any idea how bloody difficult a large chemical or cyber attack is? Who's going to do it? Russia or China have the capacity to commit cyber attacks big enough to cripple the UK but they have zero incentive to do it without significantly hurting themselves in the process.

A chemical attack that goes unoticed during the planning stage is so unlikely - first you need to recruit willing people with the skills to do it who aren't on the radar of any security services. Which is hard as most people aren't wannabe terrorists and those who are aren't generally chemists. But let's say you can. Then you need to get the chemicals, again without alerting anyone. Very difficult as buying large quantities of anything will set off suspicions. You need somewhere to store them, again without being suspicious, you need transport, you need to choose a good time to do it, you need to get the equipment into the centre of a city...it's hard! And nobody has ever done it yet, which shows it's really really hard.

Derby? Fucking Derby?! Not London and the seat of power but actual Derbyshire Derby?!

Well if we are blown to oblivion at least dh and I have had a bloody good laugh at Derby being the place to go first 😂😂

Lurking: 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.

Oh my god, exactly the same here! I was 16 and we lived in N Kent, hurricane hit us hard, and I woke up to hear the wind whistling arounf the house, and no power, dead darkness outside. I was convinced it was the holocaust.

So I... inexplicably, went back to sleep. In the morning, the power cuts were county wide, so no school. Our massive willow tree and fences had blown down, and loads of the tiles on the roof had smashed through the conservatory roof. But I had just gone back to sleep I guess it's the equivalent to 'seeing' a ghost and pulling the duvet over your head.

Firstly remember that the invention of nuclear weapons has brought about a period of general peace and stability. I know it doesn't feel this way but the constant news cycles we're exposed to, really skews our perceptions.

With the exception of North Korea (we are not in their range!) no nuclear powers have ANY interest in using them, they are a deterrent.

Nuclear power itself poses a greater threat and I cannot provide any reassurance on that front. Terror attacks on nuclear facilities or an accident are more likely than anyone using a bomb. The government are IDIOTS for not winding down the use of nuclear.

I share your sense of doom, especially when I look at my daughter and think of the world she'll inherit and the life she'll live. My only advice is to avoid the news and switch your radio over to radio3 or just listen to uplifting podcasts.

Live in the moment, there is nothing we can do.

Am I missing something??
I don't watch much news tbh

I'm more worried about my upcoming long haul flight than I am about nuclear war. I also spent the 80s worrying about it so no, not any more.

I shall be heavily medicated and very drunk for either scenario

At the height of my anxiety I obsessed about nuclear war and believe it or not - asteroid collisions. I was absolutely convinced that we were all facing death by impending asteroid collision that would end the human race.

No real advice but I know no matter how unrealistic the threat is, if you get it in your head, it becomes very real and it's terrifying.

Thanks, Lola.

Blimey, how do we get to unilateral nuclear war from one (rather large) bomb?! The worst will be more one-man-mad-band have a go terrorist attacks. DAESH don't need to task them, those throughout the world who believe their crazy shit just hire a quick van and bingo.

Are people thinking Putin will hit back for the bombing? Confused. I sadly gave up international diplomacy a few years ago, and am better at talking bedding plants and dog food.

Can the next person please explain why nuclear carnage will start in Derby? Why not Nottingham, there's a big IKEA there.

Arf at big IKEA

But why Derby and not the Royal Navy shipyards where active submarine and or ships might be?!

Well, for a start the nuclear submarine operational support is run from Derby - also out of three sites where Rolls Royce keep nuclear material, two of them are here

The nuclear sub thing seems a bit ironic when you consider that Derby's about as far as you can get from the sea while in the UK, but there you go ...

I had nuclear war dreams as a teenager (in the 80's) - and I've just started having them again recently.

It is, without a doubt, a result of the state of the world at the minute - in the 90's and Gorbachov 'standing down' - this fear went away. For 2, nearly 3 decades. Now it is back again.

Sorry, but it is - there is instability in the world, and there are nuclear weapons around vast times the size of the ones we feared in the 80's - and 1000 times the size of the ones that hit Nagasaki.

We're not quite at the Cuban crisis yet, but we are close. The doomsday clock is at 2.5 minutes to midnight. It's not a 'mental health issues' thing to worry about this - Trump is a loose cannon. Putin is unpredictable. It's at a 'god only knows' state at the moment.

Op I also understand your fear esp if your living with some one who is taking a greater interest in it - than normal person would eg my DH

A bomb could be coming straight at us and I would be screaming and he would say I am being OTT.

TBH more than nuke attacks I fear dirty ISIS attacks across Europe. They have the know how and the dirty weapons seized from Libya etc.

North Korea....maybe if pushed into a corner he would attack.....the man who killed his own uncle by some vile means and others...maybe he wouldnt care anymore...one wonders at the humanity that can be left in a man with such a vile legacy but it wouldnt reach the UK.

Out of everything going on its NK that is the unstable bad guy here....I hope the US and China and sort it out.

Trump is a loose cannon. Putin is unpredictable

^^ Arf both dreadful but nothing on Kim .

I bet bloody Mrs Putin is on here. Now she'll bloody read about the nukey stuff and sodding tell him! See what you've done?! *i think they meant Dordogne, Mrs Putin, that's where the UK keeps its nuke bullety stuff, not Derby at all. Actually, I think we moved it - to ...er.....Torquay....yes, that's it - babbacombe sands.

MovingOnUpMovingOnOut Thu 13-Apr-17 23:21:37

^ MUST ADMIT that was my reaction too.

Well yes, Kim is mad. Exactly. And he has the bomb. Along with the most trigger happy Leaders of nuclear powers we have seen since WW2.

This is exactly my worry....

Isn't china going to be pretty fucked off if Trump hits North Korea? Hopefully he won't... I am no expert but I think it might be more South Korea's problem than ours but I feel so very sorry for the people there.

I get so fucking mad at all the people who thought it was great when trump won because although they don't agree with his policies it would 'shake up the old political order/political elite yadda yadda'. Cunts.

I remember in the 80s we all had a leaflet through the door from the govt, telling you to hid under a table in the event of nuclear war.
My dad told me not to worry about that and to hope the bomb dropped on us, because being dead was the best outcome in a nuclear war. He was right!

However after that cheery news😂 please don't worry because it isn't going to happen.

sorry not seeing correlation here with trump and nuclear war

NK was Obamas biggest worry this is what he passed onto Trump - verbally, its the most worrying un stable secretive evil nation on this planet. Its one large prison camp - sorry how does Trump being elected relate to this?
NK is a problem for China, in many ways.

Yes, nuclear weapons are made and stored in Derby so it would be one of the first places to ensure the weapons couldn't be deployed to where they were required. Similar reasons why places like Coventry were hit in the last World War. If you hit where things are manufactured, you only have a finite amount of armoury to deal with. Hope that provides the PP and her husband with a few more laughs.

drasticaction I don't recall Obama willy waving and threatening to strike NK, placing ships carrying Tomahawks ready to fire, and thereby probably enraging China. a few days after pissing Russia off by striking Syria and the same day as dropping a MOAB on Afghanistan.

sonyaya China is pretty embarrassed by North Korea. It props it up nowadays largely because it doesn't want to have to deal with the chaos if the regime collapses. If America takes it over the way it did with the south in the 50s it might get a little pissed off, a NATO collaborative effort would be better. But at the end of the day North Korea is pretty low on China's priority list. It certainly isn't going to be angry to be relieved of a financial embarrassment.

Trump. In a security meeting after winning the presidency, asked the security council 3 times why they had nuclear weapons if they couldn't use them. That scared me. I hope, probably more than anything, that this is a complete non-threat - but hey, the man has hardly shown himself to be the seasoned diplomat of world peace since he gained power.

But hey, I bloody hope you're right.

Uh oh. Ken's from Derby. And he's pissed at you lot blabbing about it. Loose lips sink ships and all that.