What lil Detence really means /

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snot - that's what Britain's 'civil defence' against nuclear war offers all but an elite few; during the attack - reckon sent out a circular entitlec it's safe enough for them to 'Briefing Material for War come out again. Above time Controllers • It wa: ground, if they're still alive classified and only sent tc There should be a network of top civil servants and police more civil servants stationed chiefs in remote safe' areas who *The. first section deall will link up with the lucky with Law and Order', It out bunker people to form a lines a system of emergency dozen regional governments. courts coming under the At least that's the plan. jurisdiction of regional com The New Statesman (25 Sep- missioners where therf tember) revealed what the would be . "provision foi plans are to keep everybody appropriate penalties noi from moving about. There normally available is to be a network of courts." ie. reduction Essential Service Routes rations or execution. There (ESRs) up and down the would be no appeals. consist of most of the main section of the circular. Thr roads in Britain, including rest deals with use of surviv Sur The Civil Defence' sounds like it is some sort of scheme whereby the civilian population will be defended if there's a nuclear attack. The idea is to make you feel a little safer . "It's OK. There are plans to deal with the situation if it ever arises, at least we, won't all be forgotten about. The author ities will have the situation under control.":

The end result of that reasoning being that nuclear attack wouldn't be so bad after all.

Yes a few thousand people will get killed but the rest of us will be alright, so there's not a lot to worry about 'and the government cap go on spending billions on defence and having the Cruise missiles based in Britain Well, we won't be alright. For everyone except for about 30,000 top civil servants, generals and selected members of public service and private industry, civil defence means stay where you are, keep out of the way till the system of Regional Commissioners - safely stashed away underground country. These routes the M1, M4, the A1, A3 and the vast majority of main roads out of the major cities in Britain. These roads would be 'controlled', all petrol, diesel and other fuel would be impounded, and local authorities would be ordered not to feed refugees who 'chose to ignore the government's advice to stay in their own homes'.

(A detailed map of the ESRs can be obtained from New Statesman, 10 Great Turnstile Lane, . London WC1, £2.50, with SAE). It * would be extremely difficult to get out of London for instance, as 18 routes out of the city are ESRs.

• This all seems to have very little to do with civil defence, but quite a lot to do with maintaining the existing system of law and order, and making sure that the population sticks to the government's instructions outlined: " in the tragic pamphlet 'Protect and Survive' offering practically żero protection and little chance of survival.

In 1975 the Home Office That is the most detailed ing industrial resources, andr reaches the stunning conclusion that there might not bes much left and that 'A large nuclear attack would disrupt the production and distribution of power supplies, and hence most industrial and commercial activities.

There is a section dealing with 'Manpower'. 'In spite of heavy casualties among the able-bodied population, there should be no general shortage of manpower, since industry, as it existed before the attack would be virtually at a standstill'! It goes on to point out that if there was a lack of food, people might not want to do "heavy or unpleasant" work. If this arose Regional Commissioners® would have the power to direct who did what but of course this depends on "the community's acceptance of the need and their voluntary co-operation'. ' 'Short of summary execution' that is.

vic. strange, or perhaps telling, final paragraph points out that "A large scale nuclear attack on this country would completely "disrupt the banking system. Even a small-scale attack on London and the location of the major facilities of big clearing banks would have a similar effect'. . This bizarre observation is followed by the rather shocking sentence, 'It may therefore be assumed that, for a period at least, the widespread use of money, as a means of purchasing goods or rewarding ends with the prediction that this state of affairs would only take a year or so to correct. But there's one word of warning. "The crea-

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services, would cease'. How- ever, happily the circular