Meditations on tea supplies in the post nuclear world

A nuclear attack on the UK in the 1950s (as it would have done at any time) would have left millions dead or horribly mutilated. Disease, starvation and lawlessness would have been rife. Of major concern, however, was the supply of tea. Recently released documents show that Government officials planning food supplies were concerned that the tea situation would be "very serious" after a nuclear war. "It would be wrong to consider that even 1oz per head per week could be ensured," they stated.

The documents said a nuclear conflict would result in the loss of three-quarters of tea stocks.

On a more serious (but unsurprising) note one paper from April 1955 said: "The advent of thermonuclear weapons... has presented us with a new and much more difficult set of food defence problems." The aim was to be "completely ready to maintain supplies of food to the people of these islands, sufficient in volume to keep them in good heart and health from the onset of a thermonuclear attack on this country". "It has become increasingly clear that the severity of the attack which the enemy could launch would produce a catastrophe in the face of which past measures would be fatally deficient," the document added.

Or to put it more sincerely and crudely “If the Bomb drops, we’re screwed......”