With France about to advise its citizens on how to survive an ‘imminent threat’, it’s time to wise up to what the real essentials are
It’s a fairly strong indication that your US presidency is not going well when, within three months of you taking office, one of your closest allies feels the need to issue its entire population with a manual on how to survive an “imminent threat”. According to French media reports, that is what the French government is planning in the form of a 20-page booklet to go out to its citizens this summer. And while it’s intended for use against natural disaster or medical threat, we all know what we’re really talking about here. The French government would like to remind its people that, in the event of a nuclear attack, they must remember to close the doors and windows.
My dad recalls Buckinghamshire county council issuing a similar pamphlet in the 1980s, for when Russia dropped an atomic bomb on Aylesbury. My family didn’t need the advice, as it happened; in the event of the collapse of civil society, my mother’s Tupperware and plastic-bag reserves that filled an entire floor-to-ceiling cupboard would’ve pushed us to the top of any barter-based value system. Plus, for at least a week, we could have lived like kings on decades-old gravy and bolognese sauce loosened from the permafrost of the chest freezer in the garage like the body of a caveman after an ice age.
Emma Brockes is a Guardian columnist
Continue reading… With France about to advise its citizens on how to survive an ‘imminent threat’, it’s time to wise up to what the real essentials areIt’s a fairly strong indication that your US presidency is not going well when, within three months of you taking office, one of your closest allies feels the need to issue its entire population with a manual on how to survive an “imminent threat”. According to French media reports, that is what the French government is planning in the form of a 20-page booklet to go out to its citizens this summer. And while it’s intended for use against natural disaster or medical threat, we all know what we’re really talking about here. The French government would like to remind its people that, in the event of a nuclear attack, they must remember to close the doors and windows.My dad recalls Buckinghamshire county council issuing a similar pamphlet in the 1980s, for when Russia dropped an atomic bomb on Aylesbury. My family didn’t need the advice, as it happened; in the event of the collapse of civil society, my mother’s Tupperware and plastic-bag reserves that filled an entire floor-to-ceiling cupboard would’ve pushed us to the top of any barter-based value system. Plus, for at least a week, we could have lived like kings on decades-old gravy and bolognese sauce loosened from the permafrost of the chest freezer in the garage like the body of a caveman after an ice age.Emma Brockes is a Guardian columnist Continue reading… Life and style, Society, France, Nuclear weapons, UK news, Europe, World news