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?

Stable iodine tablets only protect against exposure to radioactive iodine and do nothing against the likely other radiation hazards such as external gamma radiation.

Your thyroid might come off unscathed, but you'll still die of acute radiation syndrome.

@notimagain The war game is nicely directed "docu/drama" which was indeed censored by the Government.

Ironically, it was based on pre-1968 (film was released in 1966) civil defence plans which were much more comprehensive that after that date, due to the realisation that those pre 1968 plans were utterly worthless following a multiple fusion weapon attack on the UK (also by scrapping those pre 68 plans large amounts of money was saved)

An emergency alert system is being set up currently, so someone has figured out we need something! Basically any phone connected to a UK network in an area at risk will receive a loud alert that won’t stop until it’s acknowledged by dismissing on screen.
www.gov.uk/alerts

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.

I would have said it was very unlikely, too - until last week! Now I am not so sure. It seems to me that other countries (like Switzerland and Sweden) have far better preparation than the UK does.

Stable iodine tablets only protect against exposure to radioactive iodine and do nothing against the likely other radiation hazards such as external gamma radiation.

Yes that's very true. I have hypothyroidism and imagine after an attack I will no longer be able to get my medication, so will die from that eventually if not from radiation sickness beforehand!

They’ll have some sort of plan but like when they used to plan for pandemics it’s probably weak. Well, they didn’t plan for pandemics so maybe not as weak, but weak as you can do even less.

Wouldn’t it depend where it hit? It wouldn’t get the whole country.

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.

Switzerland is pretty unique though, I wouldn't say it's the norm. I also reckon in reality there wouldn't be space as it will depend on location.

My oldest son told me last night that "nowadays" we should be able to survive a targeted nuclear attack on RAF Menwith (our nearest likely target) I applaud his optimism but I don't really care to find out! I don't believe the government give a flying fart about the general population if it comes to a nuclear attack..

I don't think you'd want to survive impact in a bunker and then have to go out to a desolate wasteland and die of disease. Say goodbye to loved ones when you hear the four minute warning and hope to go quickly We have working air raid sirens still and they will broadcast a message over radio, TV, SMS if and when it will happen.

Unless someone close to Putin takes him out I can't see how else this will all end. It's not like he's going to go on Oprah and say sorry.

@CrunchyCarrot post WW2 UK plans never involved shelters for the population at any point due to both cost (mainly) and practicality.

The government was open about this back in the day - read this government pamphlet:

www.atomica.co.uk/cdwhy.htm

and all those bunkers won't have enough supplies for a year.

[quote Emmelina]An emergency alert system is being set up currently, so someone has figured out we need something! Basically any phone connected to a UK network in an area at risk will receive a loud alert that won’t stop until it’s acknowledged by dismissing on screen.
www.gov.uk/alerts[/quote]
They've been talking about it for years (I remember discussing at a conference that covered emergency planning in 2018/9) and thinking about it, it seems that we probably need to get up to speed with this sort of thing.

Covid has probably delayed this as its the same people who'd deal with covid as would set all this up, but that Swedish stuff looks great and shouldn't take too long to implement an app, alert system and instructional leaflet here, war or no war.

It's needed for all manner of events such as flooding, releases from nuclear or other large sites (there's the COMAH, control of major accident hazards regulations, that covers large industrial sites that could affect public health off site).

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

That will protect your thyroid, at a strong enough dose, but no other part of your body, unfortunately. Thyroid cancer would likely be the least of your worries in the event of a nuclear attack close enough to have you worrying about radiation damage to the thyroid over a period of six months.

I started turning into a conspiracy theorist last night, what if the lockdowns were all a precursor to make us stay indoors for a Nuke attack, what if all this shit is really about Nato getting the Ukraine border? Then I quietly slapped myself back to reality!

@WrongWayApricot The UK doesn't have any "working sirens" outside those which were re-purposed for flood warnings and those restored to use on remembrance day at the start of a silence. So please don't expect siren warnings to sound any time soon!

I've never done a conspiracy theory before, think I'm a tad crap at then

Thanks, @Flapjacker48, very interesting to read. Of course the population was way smaller back then, it would be impossible now to protect everyone in some kind of shelter.

I remember how the elite were prepping for climate change, pandemics, revolution etc

bunkers in NZ
homes around the world
laser eye surgery
archery lessons
helicopters on standby

I was good at archery maybe I need to get a bow & arrow set 😆

reading how

As an aside, I firmly believe the senior level armed forces in Russia would not go through with a nuclear launch (unless they genuinely believed that USA/UK was attacking, or imminently about to attack them with strategic nuclear weapons). Putin's snazzy phone console doesn't have a button called "launch missiles" at his will despite what some MN posters think.

This is an interesting little story about a soviet officer in 1983:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1983_Soviet_nuclear_false_alarm_incident

A gloriously sunny Sunday morning and I’m sat on MN reading this thread. 2022 was supposed to be our bright new beginning not a precursor to Nuclear Holocaust.

Nuclear attack doesn’t scare me as much as the possibility of an EMP attack or devastating cyber attack which in my opinion would be more likely. That would be lights out for the whole country for a long time, decapitating our economy and function of society.

How we make the sunniest of days cloudy for ourselves…

They weren't prepared for the pandemic they were warned about for years so I doubt it. Plus they don't care about anywhere other than London which would be targeted.

What can a leaflet say?

You're Fucked.
Good bye.

They will have been planning, and revising plans since about 1947.

Yes, cyber attacks are far far more likely than nuclear attacks. Take out the internet, banking systems and so on and we are screwed

Maybe her having a legacy has made her a bit slap dash with money,?

I get the ops concern