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?

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

No hitching lifts with the Vogons?
Or saying so long and thanks for all the fish?

Nuclear weapons are very different to the old 'shelter and cover' ones.
Sixteen strikes would wipe out the majority of infrastructure and most people in the UK. It would take under an hour.
The best we plebs would get is a 20 minute warning.
No electricity, no water , no internet, no comms.

Designed for dirty bombs or if Sellafield goes bang, but would be applicable to the fallout aspect if a bomb was dropped.

I don't see how it can be the same in the event of multiple &/or big nuclear weapons. There would be no one to help coordinate left!

[quote Flapjacker48]@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.[/quote]
Probably so. But do we really think tens/hundreds of nuclear weapons are going to strike the UK, or anywhere?

We also need to consider regular bombs! With not much in the way of bomb shelters and no siren warnings, how would warnings be given? Texts at 2.00 a.m. when everyone's asleep? Sirens would have been so much better.

If it’s anything like their pandemic planning they’ll just throw it all out of the window and use it as an opportunity to further line their own pockets..

Eat out
To help out
The fallout

Im not sure there is a way of surviving one , plus if one is used then i believe that may be end for all of us as surely would be retaliation etc from someone
I try not to think of it and also think why did someone ever invent one ever what ever possessed them

Probably so. But do we really think tens/hundreds of nuclear weapons are going to strike the UK, or anywhere

No, but 10 is far more likely than 1

Here on the continent iodine tablets are being made available in pharmacies.

Is it Switzerland where it’s compulsory for houses to have bunkers?

Is there any point in worrying about it? I remember seeing a tv show about Hiroshima and the vaporized shadows of people left after the bomb was dropped. I’d imagine the bombs today are far more deadly so the only comfort is that it would be over quickly. DH has said he’d ‘knock out’ me and the DC so we’d know nothing about it.

It’s so grim, and ordinary people are completely powerless it seems.

Here on the continent iodine tablets are being made available in pharmacies.

when were they not available?

Also there is a serious "Mandela effect" about the protect and survive booklet - it was NEVER issued en-masse to UK households, various newspapers/tv docs/journalists showed bits of it in the 70s and it was available to buy from 1980 (not many sold

I am glad you said that because I don't remember any of this stuff. All I remember is CND, the "nuclear power, no thanks" stickers and the women on Greenham Common. I turned 11 in 1983 and I don't remember being that terrified of nuclear war. It was Chornobyl which was the scary thing. I remember a newspaper article about what would happen if Hinckley Point exploded and how the M5 would become a "nightmare road to nowhere". Funny how that has stuck in my mind!

@ToMockAKillingBird

Is it Switzerland where it’s compulsory for houses to have bunkers?

Is there any point in worrying about it? I remember seeing a tv show about Hiroshima and the vaporized shadows of people left after the bomb was dropped. I’d imagine the bombs today are far more deadly so the only comfort is that it would be over quickly. DH has said he’d ‘knock out’ me and the DC so we’d know nothing about it.

It’s so grim, and ordinary people are completely powerless it seems.

No idea about Switzerland, but it’s compulsary in Sweden.

Unless you have an underground bunker with its own air and water supply what else can you do shesh. Its pretty obvious hardly anyone would survive. You wouldn't be able to come up to surface for years.

The only thing you can do is get out of the country in time but I doubt you'll even get enough warning.

I assume these compulsory bunkers aren’t set up for nuclear war

@toomuchlaundry

I assume these compulsory bunkers aren’t set up for nuclear war

No, nothing is.

@ficti, I like to part too, so will be joining you and Boris.

@BarbaraofSeville No, the chance of even one strategic strike is so vanishingly small, it is not really a scenario that is planned for. I'm puzzled by the insistence of some that the Government have "plans" for a nuclear attack on the UK - the plans for a nuclear attack on the UK are mainly for the country to rapidly retaliate, which is essentially the UK/USA plan on how to avoid a nuclear attack as we have that capability.

@speakout

I have bought 6 months supply of iodine tablets for my family.

After Chernobyl German hospitals were inundated with cases of iodine poisoning!!

If it comes to nuclear war, the UK will be completely destroyed. Uninhabitable. There’s little point worrying about it.

It’s true P&S only made the bookshops (50p a pop according to wiki) but any thoughts that “this stuff”, and discussion of it is something that only dates from the 80’s is widely incorrect. There wasn’t the barrage of social media in the olden days but the topic certainly was discussed/in the public domain before then.

FWIW I was serving in the military in the 80’s… if the worse had happened I might have been in a bunker ( which would have been no use at all if a weapon had been on target), or might have been elsewhere. No way the family were going to get access to any bunker for themselves so we had a wildly optimistic plan involving them heading for the hills if there had been enough warning….

BTW “Threads” gets mentioned a lot here but well prior to that there was at least the BBC “War Game” which got a limited showing and whose public broadcast was delayed because it was so shocking and possibly bad for morale

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_War_Game

@Dougieowner

Back in the 80's I was installing standby generators in bunkers for essential services. Some of these bunkers still contained tinned food from the 50's when they were originally built. At the time this food was being disposed of and replaced with new supplies. 20-years later I was recovering the self same generators as the bunkers were being decommissioned following the fall of the Berlin wall and the so called "piece dividend". Of course there are still bunkers but technology has moved on and local control is no-longer required as it is more centralised. With the best will in the world no government (especially in a densely populated country such as ours) could provide secure protection for the whole population so they have to ensure essential services (and the government) can still function and the population as a whole has to look after itself. I can understand this so go with it regardless of how unpalatable it may seem to some. I was also in the army (PBI) so have been trained to operate in an NBC environment and it is not a lot of fun.

Worrying isn't going to help anyone.

I think you’ll find Switzerland does actually have enough shelter for all of the population. Some of the Scandinavian countries have enough shelter for large amounts of people I believe.

@CrunchyCarrot So you would want the Government to spend a fortune on stuff like sirens and shelters (shelters which never existed for the general population at the height of the cold war) on the remote possibility the UK might get "bombed"? What would you not spend money on to pay for this?

One of reason that the civil defence the UK had was pretty much disassembled post 1991 was the cost, both to central and local government, combined with the fact any attack was VERY unlikely.

This is a very useful information resource re potassium iodide prophylactic treatment and exposure to radioactive iodine. Seems that if you are over 40 a prophylactic dose isn't really necessary unless you are very close to the radioactive material. This was based on using Chernobyl as an example. 100 milligrams of KI per adult as a single dose is mentioned. This is a huge amount - recommended daily intake is around 300 micrograms!

www.who.int/ionizing_radiation/pub_meet/Iodine_Prophylaxis_guide.pdf