When I was growing up, many people were extremely worried about the threat of nuclear war. Some people built nuclear fallout shelters in their houses or gardens, and stocked them with supplies. There was the "Ban The Bomb" movement: there were anti-nuclear demonstrations, protest songs, protest music festivals, etc. There was also an excellent movie, Dr. Strangelove, which some readers may have seen; although humorous on the surface, there was a serious theme of how easily things could get out of control and lead to nuclear annihilation.

This story in The Guardian makes me wonder whether we are headed for another bout of such worry. It seems that a number of experts in the field believe that the world is prone to a nuclear war, started either deliberately or by accident, due to the number of ready-to-launch nuclear weapons, some held by rogue nations, some held by governments that are less than stable.

If this happens, at least we could hope that the British government will come up with some more plausible propaganda than in the 70s, when it produced "Protect and Survive". This was held in reserve (not published for years) in case needed, and basically lied to the public about what they could do to survive, in order to keep them off the streets and have them die tidily at home.