
'WWIII Queen's speech' script revealed - joelg236
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-23518587
======
jgrahamc
To me the speech is interesting because it reminds us how we did actually all
live in fear that a nuclear war could happen. It seems remote now, but growing
up it was ever present.

I think it's in Generation X that one character describes "waiting for the
flash". The idea that the sudden destruction of everything was an ever present
background thought. In the book Coupland defines the term "Mental Ground Zero"
for where you imagined you'd be when it happened. For me it was always on a
train traveling between two cities that no longer exist.

~~~
petercooper
I'm young enough to be on the tail end of it, but I remember seeing When The
Wind Blows as a kid in the late 80s and being aware of what could happen.
Curiously, the whole movie is now on YouTube:
[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N9aHT-
IlkHo](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N9aHT-IlkHo) (it's animated)

For anyone with a morbid curiosity over nuclear war, THREADS is worth a watch
too. I didn't learn about it until very recently but supposedly it was on
prime time British TV in 1984 and scared the bejeezus out of everyone in its
rendition of what might happen to the UK in the case of nuclear war. It's also
on YouTube!
[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_MCbTvoNrAg](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_MCbTvoNrAg)

~~~
kingofspain
They showed us Threads in primary school. I don't remember much of it to be
honest, other than finding the accents hilarious (as Lancastrians we were
brought up to fear & hate the Yorkist dogs).

I think it shook up the teachers more than us, but I guess that's to be
expected. We were too young to really have felt the paranoia of the times.

~~~
tonyblundell
They showed it to us at Primary school too. I'm from south Sheffield though so
the accents sounded quite posh to us :-)I do remember being freaked out by any
loud noises in town for a few months afterwards.

I watched it again a couple of years ago. It's amazing to think about how
close we actually came to nuclear war not so long ago and now we're in a
position where people can campaign for self disarmament of nuclear weapons.

~~~
gadders
We had people campaigning for unilateral disarmament then as well. TBH I still
don't think it's a valid position when you have rogue states such as Pakistan
and North Korea with nuclear weapons.

------
gadders
And this is why we have a royal family. I actually felt quite stirred reading
that speech. I can't imagine David Cameron or Ed Milliband managing that. I
think Churchill was an outlier.

~~~
seclorum
I think that the dependency of the English people on their Matriarch for
comfort and compassion is a sign of ill-health, personally, as a society. I
find it repugnant that in a time of dire circumstances, the dependency on cult
figures is still a resolute component of the human social experience. Until we
do away with such crutches, we'll always have the very threat of war upon us
..

~~~
tonyblundell
I'd be interested to hear more on this. At the minute I'm not sure what dire
circumstances you mean, or how having a leader implies a threat of war. It
seems like a lot of what you wrote could be applied to any leader of any
nation.

I went through a vehement anti-monarchy phase when I was younger, since then
I'm starting to appreciate the idea of a head of state who isn't a career
politician that campaigned or even bought their way into office.

~~~
seclorum
The human proclivity towards cult behaviour is what I'm talking about. The UK
Royals have no real function other than to promote the English personality, as
a cultural artifact, to their subjects. In that regard, it functions as a
cult, one of the most effective in the world, for promulgating collective
reality.

This, after all, is how wars get started.

Edit: the dire circumstances being, of course, WW3 - the subject of the
Queens' speech.

------
noarchy
Unfortunately, we're still quite capable of annihilating the world several
times over with nuclear weapons. We just don't seem to be threatening to do
so, these days, at least not so openly. The nuclear cartel, for lack of a
better word, has shifted its focus towards maintaining exclusivity on the
possession of these weapons, and will wage war to accomplish this.

To be a bit more on-topic, that this speech was even considered necessary
gives me a bit of hope. We see it as a bit antiquated, fears of a time that is
now largely behind us, when our rulers were willing to sacrifice most of us in
their global power game.

~~~
FeatureRush
> annihilating the world several times over with nuclear weapons.

No, not really, see

[http://www.informationisbeautiful.net/2009/how-i-learnt-
to-s...](http://www.informationisbeautiful.net/2009/how-i-learnt-to-stop-
worrying-and-love-the-bomb/)

[http://www.johnstonsarchive.net/nuclear/nuclearwar1.html](http://www.johnstonsarchive.net/nuclear/nuclearwar1.html)

------
sinkasapa
If Hallmark made a "Sorry about your war" card, it would sound like this.

~~~
arethuza
I don't think there is much of a market for a "Wish you a quick painless death
in the forthcoming nuclear war" card. :-|

------
eksith
There's an interview of Jeremy Paxman with Parkinson that touches on the
responsibilities of a newly elected PM which include writing (in their own
handwriting) orders for the commanders of the nuclear subs. These are to be
read in the event that the country is destroyed and they are dead. Tony Blair
was so overcome with the gravity of this, he took to his home for a while to
mull over the implications.

[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gSrJNa--
Oq8](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gSrJNa--Oq8) (5:25)

------
gnosis
The most frightening and realistic depiction of a nuclear holocaust that I've
seen is a 1984 BBC film called _Threads._ [1][2]

You can watch it for free on youtube.[3]

[1] -
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Threads](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Threads)

[2] -
[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0090163/](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0090163/)

[3] -
[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_MCbTvoNrAg](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_MCbTvoNrAg)

