Last June, the UK government published a national security strategy that “raised the spectre of war on the home front”, said Sky News’ security and defence editor Deborah Haynes. But 12 months on, “it has yet to issue public guidance on how to ready the whole of society for potential war” on our doorstep.
What is ‘civil defence’?
It is the system of organised, non-military measures a society puts into place to protect civilians during large-scale emergencies, including war or natural disasters. The aim is to reduce loss of life, minimise damage, and ensure local communities are equipped to cope, should disaster strike.
During the Cold War, a restricted-access Government War Book laid out an array of civil defence measures to prepare the nation for the run-up to a war, and those plans were regularly rehearsed. In the late 1970s, the government produced “Protect and Survive” leaflets containing advice on how to protect yourself during a nuclear attack; originally only distributed to emergency planners, an amended version was eventually published in 1980 after pressure from journalists – to the public’s mixed alarm and ridicule.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Latest Videos From
Now, “as Europe rearms against Russia”, civil defence readiness has “become just as important as the ability to draft recruits or churn out weapons”, said Rozina Sabur, The Telegraph’s national security editor. But, compared with efforts being made by many of its European counterparts, Britain is lagging behind, and risks “sleepwalking into potential disaster”.
What planning and organisation do we have?
Britain’s Cold War civil defence plans extended to “every part of UK society”, from central government to parish councils and village schools, said Sky News’ Haynes. And what would need to be done to implement measures such as “freeing up space in hospitals and rationing food and fuel” were well understood by all involved.
But since the Cold War ended, successive prime ministers have shied away from the cost of “maintaining structures, organisations, volunteers and supplies” to “endure a war of national survival”, seeing them as “no longer justified”. Emergency planning pivoted to focus on natural disasters, including floods and heatwaves, or “unconventional threats like terrorism and cyberattacks”.
We no longer have enough specialist engineers to respond to a conventional Russian attack on our energy and telecoms sectors, said Sabur in the Telegraph. Our air defences are “stretched”, our “network of Second World War dugouts has fallen largely into disrepair”, and we disbanded our volunteer Civil Defence Corps in 1968.
Is anything being done now?
The Cabinet Office has established a Home Defence Programme to “rapidly build the UK’s preparedness for any potential escalation to conflict”, a government spokesman told Sky News. “Protecting national security is our first duty and we are constantly hardening and sharpening our approach.”
In April, George Robertson, the former Nato secretary general who authored Britain’s national security strategy, said there is a case for the UK adopting the “Swedish model” and creating mandatory civil defence roles for UK adults. In Sweden, “total defence duty” requires all adults aged 16 to 70 to participate in the country’s defence in the event of war, or threat of war.
