The extremley informative Protect and Survive manual

I found the extremely helpful Protect and Survive manual while searching for other things in the Mitchel Library. As it says on the front cover "This book tells you how to make your home and your family as safe as possible under nuclear attack" and i thought it was bound to have some information about h ow to build a very safe nest. It's a government pamphlet which was given out in the mid 80's due to the apparent threat of nuclear attack. Its full of all sorts of useful information about where to build your fall out shelter and how to build one from books and bits of doors?

A handy lists of supplies to keep handy for the 48hours of radiation that follows a bomb drop , it includes such things as: Torches, spare batteries, matches, toilet articles, change of clothes, first aid, dry sand, Vaseline , notebooks for messages, cleaning materials, toys and a mechanical clock. It tells you how to store drinking water safely, how to go to the bathroom, how to protect against fire, how to deflect the blast by painting the windows white and, of course, how to bury your dead.

To be honest I found it all pretty comical to read over. It seemed so ludicrous and the advice given is pretty laughable , things like... "If you are in the open and cannot get home within a few minutes lie flat (in a ditch) and cover the exposed skin of the head and hands" the little illustration shows you how to cover your head with a jacket. I find it really hard to believe that this will save you in a nuclear attack? but it is a government approved handbook?

The further into the booklet i got though the sadder it seemed. This illustration in particular makes the people look so pathetic.

I suppose I can find it laughable because I'm lucky enough never to have experienced this kind of threat. And if you are living this day to day when the government tells you to do something to keep yourself safe, with no other option, there's a good chance your going to do what they say. It does seem an awful lot like scaremongering at best and at worst miss information for the hopeless.

Anyway, it was definatly an intresting read, I'm glad I came a cross it and i think it c overs quite a few of the points in my research too.