To wonder if the government have started any planning on what if a nuclear weapon hit britain

[Gotajobthrunepotism]

Even in the current climate, I don’t actually believe that a nuclear bomb will be hitting the UK.

But I wondered if the government have prepared for the eventuality.

I heard that in the 70s/80s there were loads of leaflets and adverts of what we should do if we were attacked.

In other countries they have bomb shelters and sirens.

I wouldn’t have a clue what to do. The only thing I do know is that I would want to be with my family when it happened.

Anyone one else wonder about this?

Lols fungh

I would advise anyone who hasn’t already to watch Threads and then ask yourself the question “Do I really want to survive that?”

If the answer is still yes then you should avoid any large city as they will be targeted. I think there were 106 targets at one point in the UK, including every major city and some not so major. Avoid living near an airport, particularly a military one or Naval base.

The only blast safe places that looked like they would get away with the initial blasts were fairly rural places. High up in Scotland, North of England and mid Wales/Snowdonia area. The isles would probably be safe. Shetland, IOM, Orkney etc etc.

The initial blasts would probably kill 50% of the population.

However, if you survive the blast then you have the problem of radiation and sourcing clean food and drinking water. I think all electricity would be gone. To be honest I think only those who had prepped for it with a year or twos worth of food, an underground radioactive proof shelter and had armed themselves as it would become dog eat dog and had medicines etc could possibly survive. Even then it may not be possible.

Best bet would probably be to leave the country and go and live somewhere every remote that wouldn’t be targeted and is a long way from other islands. Seychelles, Mauritius etc. Least you could have a nice couple of weeks if nothing else.

@Kazzyhoward

We have three different sirens depending on what sort of attack it is, and instructions what to do if they go off.

Brilliant - let's use last century's technology. Given that the vast majority of people have smart phones etc., we really, really, should have a "fit for purpose" system of smart phone alerts, i.e. tailored messages to phones based on a very localised "phone mast" circumference. The technology must be available to do it. By all means, continue using old fashioned sirens as a back up, but most people wouldn't know what to do nor what they mean. Just look at when a fire alarm goes off and everyone stands around waiting to see what others are doing!

This is our app @Kazzyhoward

If I call SOS on it they will also have my exact position where I am on the map.

Daily Mail Femail

What to wear to survive a nuclear attack,

We asked 5 celebrities to choose what they would wear.

There won't be a nuclear war even Putin is not that stupid.

My plan is to head for the nearest high cliff.

'what "official bunkers"? we are talking at best, places like the (alleged) one under the MoD for a tiny amount of people.'

I don't know. We don't know. Like everyone else on this thread I'm speculating.

I'm presuming there will specifically chosen experts who will have access to some kind of underground facility for the aftermath. Surely?

The regional administration bunker for East Anglia was sold about 15 years ago to CUP and it’s now book stacks. I think I’ll head for there with my baked beans and I’ll be absolutely fine.

Janile, not many. Think 200 maximum. And any planning will be for the survival of 1% - 10% of the population we have now.

@WhereYouLeftIt As someone who has had in the past a reasonable amount of civil contingencies experience both at local and higher levels, I can assure you that yes, of course there are plans for all sorts of localised and even national emergency situations. Nuclear type stuff focusses on an accident, say at a nuclear power station, or a limited "dirty bomb" type scenario. In these situations the emergency services and armed forces could have an impact.

There is not planning for a full scale strategic nuclear attack on the UK. The chance of this is vanishingly small and no amount of exercising the emergency services would have any impact on the destruction of the country.

How many people in the UK have long term health conditions & need medication? I suppose you could raid pharmacies

And of course there are plans in place.

Whether you approve of the plans is a different matter.

The fact is that in the event of a nuclear catastrophe large numbers of ill, injured or otherwise vulnerable survivors would be a liability. Saving their lives wouldn't be remotely a priority.

I'd guess in human terms, the priority would be retaining some sort of administration, and keeping teenagers and people in their early 20s as healthy as possible.

@WhereYouLeftIt

The government will not have started planning, they will have continued planning. Disaster planning is a thing. Years ago I was at college with someone who was going on to do Disaster Planning degree.

www.coventry.ac.uk/course-structure/ug/eec/disaster-and-emergency-management-bsc-hons/

Also, emergency services periodically practice these plans to see what they've missed. I've a vague memory of a dry run of a train derailment, my son took part in a police hostage-taking exercise, and I'm pretty sure Salisbury weren't just winging it on Novichok but implementing plans made long before.

Plans are made for every eventuality. Existing plans will be being reviewed right now.

Whether we like what is being planned is another matter.

Exactly, but never let the truth get in the way of the opportunity to engage in terrifyingly ill informed ranting on the internet.

Underground stations in London will be no use as shelters if a nuclear bomb is detonated over London. The extreme heat will generate a firestorm which will suck all the oxygen out of underground stations/basements/shelters so you would suffocate even if you survived the initial blast.

I would expect the government have plans as to what to do. They will have a secret nuclear bunker or two where the PM and senior military leaders can hide if an attack looks likely. These will be located outside of London, like the old cold war one at Kelvedon Hatch. From there they will be able to order the nuclear retaliation. The good thing about our deterrent being submarine-based is that there won't be such an urgency to return fire immediately, they can decide upon a target that will cause most loss of Russian life (nuclear weapons dropped from planes or fired by missiles from the ground are obviously targets themselves, so need to be deployed straight away when a nuclear war starts lest they get destroyed by the enemy before being used against them).

If there's one nuclear bomb on Britain the country won't be destroyed. Millions will be killed and power/water etc will be massively disrupted, the people that survive will be sent back a hundred years or more in terms of lifestyle. There will inevitably be shortages of food and water leading to rioting and looting.

If there's a proper nuclear war then there will be no point living anyway. Most of the world's population will be killed immediately or die within a few weeks/months. There won't be clean water, there won't be food that's safe to eat, we'll be back in medieval times basically. There aren't many shelters that exist where people could live indefinitely and even after radiation levels subside we will have a long nuclear winter (global temperature drop caused by extra cloud cover because of all the material sent into the atmosphere, leading to colder temperatures and inability to grow crops) so it may be decades before a proper rebuilding of society can start, if at all.

Some will survive, some always do, I suppose that's a "benefit" of global over-population at the moment. But there would be many "caretaker generations" before humans returned to a 20th century standard of living, let alone 21st.

With that in mind, any plans the government make are largely pointless beyond the very short term. All they can do is make sure the most senior or important people survive the initial attack so that we can wreak some revenge and kill some Russians. Beyond that you can't really plan to rebuild a society where everything has been destroyed and knowledge has gone with it.

Telegraph Headline:

August 2022
Sunak gives every family affected by the nuclear explosion a low interest loan of £300, to be paid back by December ‘This government is fully committed to putting the people of the UK first, and this package is the first of a number (1) initiatives this government is the first in the world to do.

To apply for the loan, people just need to go on the Gov.uk website and apply using the form.

I doubt they have a plan apart for a few privileged groups.
Esspee- Milford Haven is no more in England than Glasgow is.

Considering the Boris response to everything is 'wait and see' I'd give you my grandad's plan of assume brace position, kiss your arse goodbye. There are plans that could have the cobwebs dusted off, but he's too slow and indecisive

If they have any sense, they’ll have had an existing plan that they just keep updated over the years.
We wouldn’t necessarily know about this, can you imagine the panic (OMG it’s imminent!) or conspiracy theories (WHAT ARE THEY KEEPING FROM US?) around that?

I'm guessing Carrie is choosing her bunker wallpaper.

It's almost worth trying to survive to see the headlines 😆

The Government's emergency plan for radiation and nuclear incidents if anyone is interested.

Designed for dirty bombs or if Sellafield goes bang, but would be applicable to the fallout aspect if a bomb was dropped. Obviously the epicentre would be outside the scope of the plan, but would be useful in wider areas of lower levels of contamination.

Plus there's all the other public health emergency response plans including the one for biological agents that would have been used during the Novichok poisoinings.

To an earlier question modern history fact for the day. My dad was a councillor in one of the outer London Boroughs and there was one beneath the council offices. The council offices site has since been knocked down and redeveloped but I reckon if your town has a town hall built between 1950 to 1989 then it might have a bunker too. He said that it wasn't very big, they proudly gave the councillors a tour and then said that it was for senior council officers only. He said it might have fitted up to 10 or 20 people. However back in the day there definitely were plans made even at local level. I think that this has probably all been lost now, but if you want a space in a bunker get a senior job on a council????

@fungh

I would love to know who gets a place in an official bunker. Surely there'll be lists drawn up so key experts like defence, medical and tech staff etc can try and form some kind of survival plan afterwards.

It's a bit handmaiden but don't they need young fertile women or at least children who can grow up & repopulate.

Not to mention hairdressers and telephone sanitisers. Oh hang on, wrong global disaster......

@fungh

It's almost worth trying to survive to see the headlines 😆

I have plenty more where they came from

@BarbaraofSeville Applicable if maybe one nuclear missile hit the UK (even that would totally overwhelm the authorities), utterly pointless if even several were used let alone 10s/100s.