U.K. survival plan: substitute P.M., dictatorial powers

Press, 22 May 1978, Page 9

U.K. survival plan: substitute P.M., dictatorial powers

By PETER J. SHAW, of United Press International (through NZPA) London Britain’s updated civil iefence measures assume a nuclear attack will kill the Prime Minister and his Cabiiet. District executives will fiave dictatorial powers to Enforce the nation’s survival itrategy. If it works, the Governrent believes between 6 and jo million lives could be aved. Britain since 1974 has been discreetly reorganising ts nuclear survival plan. It deludes a prepared bill to • a n s f e r governmental p ewers to the local level, a tew Prime Minister to take •>'. er if London is hit, and tine members of Parliament seing read' 1 around the clock " become regional cornmistoners in the event of war. The survival strategy asii'ies there would be a ) dual build-up of world tension to give Britain sev-

f eral days to prepare for a il nuclear attack. it assumes that a large proportion of the 55 million population would be killed I immediately or die of radi--3 ation within two weeks. »• The strategy is based on -IBritain being blanketed by a large number of relatively li low-yield nuclear bombs. 3 One is expected to fall on liLondon and the Prime Min- | ister and his Cabinet are as- ■ sumed to be among those killed. ■ ' If it happened: A new Prime Minister II would be immediately ap-i ! pointed. Already nominated,' ■ his name is kept a closely j > guarded secret. I The nine members of Par-' > liament would assume com-1 ’ mand of regions as regional 1 commissioners. Directly beneath them: : would be county and district' chief executives. After the,' attack they would go to, ! their headquarters, taking: i with them experts capable: I of restoring life once the emergency ended.

t The executives would have dictatorial powers to make ; i whatever laws were neces-i i sary for the survival of their 1 llarea. They would co-ordinate: •with local military and) police in maintaining order. i The chief executives, who 1 11 are appointed to their jobs, | ■ would outrank elected coun-p cillors in the crisis because: i the Government concluded!' . that instant decisions would p . be more important than dis-p ! cussions and democratic)' procedures. p But the executives would j, have to explain their actions |, iin a court, if necessary,:, .'when normal life resumed. L Parliament ordered the: I survival strategy revision;, 'four years ago and officials! ■i said it was now largely fin- , ished. | . The State-run Central d Office of Information has); produced survival-plan material to be distributed to the ( ijpolulation, mainly through ] /television, as the danger of it : nuclear war increased. First warning of an im- t 1 pending attack would comeif

from the ballistic earlywarning system in Yorkshire. north-east England. After assessing its reports, j the Home Office would de-| ci de whether to put the nat-i ' ional survival plan into I : operation. | Doing so involves turning> !a key which would auto- : matically alert 250 main) I control points in police sta-1 Jtions in big cities and towns: j around Britain. They in turn' I would switch on 7000, power-operated sirens. There is a back-up net-!' iwork of some 11,000 other) i warning points in rural j areas. Some are in shops, | pubs, and private homes. Simultaneously, 873 spe- : cial monitoring posts would I come into operation to pro- ■ vide scientific data about the: type of nuclear blast and its I effects over a particular ■ area. Monitoring would be co-, ordinated by the United Kingdom Warning and Moni-i toring Organisation, which is > linked to similar groups in the North Atlantic Treaty; Organisation. |