The ins and outs of nuclear war

The Police States

When the nuclear bombs fall, so too will national government. This means that all efforts made by the government to survive the blast and regain control must be in place and rehearsed by the time the first bombs start to drop.

One of these methods was the partition of Britain into 21 police states, each run by a Cabinet Minister. The police states were split as to 17 in England and Wales, 3 in Scotland and 1 in Northern Ireland. It was hoped that over time, the police states would merge back into the Britain there was before.

Each police state was to be run by an army of civil servants, advisers, police forces, the army or military equivalent and the cabinet ministers in an underground bunker somewhere in that police state. ( The location of which being top secret ). The bunker would also be home to scientists, doctors and nurses although these people did not have administrative roles.

Each bunker would have been set up to survive weeks with enough food, water, sanitary products, medication and generators to keep it ticking over.

It sounds pretty nice right? Being able to survive the blast with the security of the bunker?

You'd think so wouldn't you. However, there was a catch: when you went down to the bunker, it was just you. Not you and your family nor you and your dog. It was just you. And you were expected to do yiur job rebuilding Britain knowing that everyone you know and love is most likely dead and your home destroyed. Cheeful.

Even now, there are 21 people in Britain who know that if things escalate, they must abandon everything, go down into a bunker and attempt to peice back together Britain knowing full well that is a fruitless task.

I say this because in reality, national level government would not be restored overnight and would likely take decades to rebuild. Even if they did manage it, it wouldn't last. It would likely be overthrown by revolt or civil war.

The far more likely senario was that the individual police states would remain just that: individual, forming small mini states run by the cabinet ministers. The low level government would likely be hardline and harsh, using the older method of using punishments to deter others rather than rehabilitate the accused. The social systems would likely be similar to that of the feudal system or other hierarchy based systems.

The original layout of the police states can be found online, although they have now changed due to population growth and other factors. Let us hope that we never have to find out what they are.