Editing Protect and Survive (section)

===Print===
The ''Protect and Survive'' pamphlet was prepared in 1976, and some 2,000 copies were printed and secretly issued to chief executives of local authorities and senior police officers. Its existence having been brought to public attention by the ''Times'' (see below), a slightly revised edition was printed in 1980, and made available through [[Office of Public Sector Information|Stationery Office]] bookshops.<ref name="Young2019" /> As published then, the pamphlet was priced at 50 pence,<ref name=Young2019a>{{cite book|last=Young|first=Taras|year=2019|title=[[Nuclear War in the UK]]|publisher=Four Corners Books|isbn=978-1-909829-16-9|pages=36–39}}</ref> but was intended for free distribution to all British households should a crisis period develop.<ref name=square>{{Cite book|last1=Campbell |first1=Duncan |author-link=Duncan Campbell (journalist, born 1952)|title=War Plan UK|orig-date=1983|date=2015|isbn=978-1-326-50612-4|page=33}}</ref> The contents of the pamphlet would also be printed in national newspapers if the risk of nuclear attack increased, with printers' proofs of this version being prepared beforehand.<ref name="Young2019" /><ref>{{cite web |last1=Young |first1=Taras |title=Protect and Survive – Creating the Campaign |url=https://coldwar.org.uk/protect-and-survive-creating-the-campaign/ |website=Nuclear War in the UK |access-date=12 April 2025 |date=28 June 2017}}</ref>

Early drafts featured what Taras Young called "clumsy choices"; the stay-at-home language included a statement that "only fools run away", while drawings for the inner refuge showed it being prepared with cushions and mattresses rather than the bulkier items of the final version. The Central Office of Information expressed concern that the "Deaths" section would be unduly worrying; the heading was thus removed and the information folded into the "Casualties" section.<ref name="Young2019" />

The main pamphlet was complemented in 1981 by two publications regarding the construction of [[fallout shelters]]: an A5 pamphlet called ''Domestic Nuclear Shelters'' with techniques for building a home shelter, and an A4 book called ''Domestic Nuclear Shelters – Technical Guidance'' for the design and construction of long-term and permanent shelters, some of which involved elaborate designs. The A5 pamphlet was later described as "neither flesh nor fowl" in an 1986 memorandum, and as early as 1983 it was felt that the information therein should instead be incorporated into a future revision of ''Protect and Survive''. One of the shelters described in both ''Domestic Nuclear Shelters'' publications was essentially identical to the Second World War-era [[Air raid shelter#Morrison shelter|Morrison shelter]], with assembly instructions being little changed from those presented in an 1941 pamphlet for the same;<ref name=youngdomnucshel>{{cite web |last1=Young |first1=Taras |title=Domestic Nuclear Shelters |url=https://coldwar.org.uk/domestic-nuclear-shelters/ |website=Nuclear War in the UK |access-date=12 April 2025 |date=30 July 2018}}</ref><ref name=Young2019a /> another type of shelter was based on the [[Air raid shelter#Anderson shelter|Anderson shelter]], also of Second World War vintage.<ref name=pressreader>{{cite magazine |last1=Young |first1=Taras |title=Preparing for armageddon |url=https://www.pressreader.com/uk/bbc-history-magazine/20200903/281616717739493 |magazine=[[BBC History|BBC History Magazine]] |access-date=2 April 2025 |date=3 September 2020|via=[[PressReader]]}}</ref>

In response to extensive criticism of ''Protect and Survive'', a follow-up pamphlet entitled ''Civil Defence: Why we need it'' was published in November 1981 which attempted to defend the government's approach to civil defence.<ref name=strangedeathofcivdefedu>{{cite web |last1=Preston |first1=John |title=The strange death of UK civil defence education in the 1980s |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/0046760X.2014.979253 |website=[[Taylor & Francis|Taylor & Francis Online]] |access-date=2 April 2025 |date=17 December 2014}}</ref><ref name=Young2019a />

One final pamphlet, ''Nuclear Weapons'', did not carry ''Protect and Survive'' branding (and, indeed, had been first published in 1956<ref>{{cite web |title=Manual of Civil Defence. Volume 1, pamphlet no. 1 : nuclear weapons 1956 |url=https://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/1500054826 |website=[[Imperial War Museum]] |access-date=8 May 2025}}</ref>), but an updated version was published in the same year as the main ''Protect and Survive'' pamphlet and has been referred to alongside the other pamphlets. This pamphlet contained a more technical discussion of nuclear weapon effects and countermeasures.<ref name=Young2019a />

====Publication of the pamphlet====
''Protect and Survive'' was formally published in May 1980, but had come to the public's attention before that via a series of articles in ''[[The Times]]'' newspaper in January 1980.<ref name=times1>Evans, P. (1980) 'Civil defence-1: Government to give greater priority to protect millions of people' ''The Times'', 16 Jan, p. 4</ref> This wave of interest had been preceded by numerous letters to ''The Times'' in December 1979<ref name=time2>Thompson, K, Nonhebel, G. (1979) 'Reviving Civil Defence (Letters to the Editor)' The Times, 29 Nov, p. 17</ref><ref name=times3>Chambers, D. (1979) 'Reviving Civil Defence (Letters to the Editor)' ''The Times'', 1 Dec, p. 13</ref> questioning what Civil Defence arrangements were in place in the UK.

This was then followed by a ''Times'' leader on 19 January 1980 which noted that: "In Britain, a Home Office booklet "Protect and Survive" remains unavailable."<ref name=times4>The Times, (1980), A Lethal Failure of Duty, 18 Jan, p. 13</ref>  Following this unexpected publicity for ''Protect and Survive'', The Minister of State at the Home Office, [[Leon Brittan]], responding on the subject in the House of Commons on 20 February 1980 said that:<ref name=times5>''The Times'', (1980), Revision of pamphlet on UK civil defence, 22 Feb, p. 10</ref>

{{blockquote|...attention has been focused on the decision of the Home Office not to publish, in advance of an imminent attack, the pamphlet entitled "Protect and Survive". It is not a secret pamphlet, and there is no mystery about it. It has been available to all local authorities and chief police and fire officers and to those who have attended courses at the Home Defence College at Easingwold. It has been shown to interested members of parliament and to journalists. It has not been published, for the simple reason that it was produced for distribution at a time of grave international crisis when war seemed imminent, and it was calculated that it would have the greatest impact if distributed then.<ref>HC Deb 20 February 1980 vol 979 cc628</ref>}}

The Minister then went on to say the Home Office had received over two hundred letters from the public on civil defence. Following the press and parliamentary focus on ''Protect and Survive'', as well as an episode of the BBC's ''Newsnight'' programme which focused on the campaign, the government chose to publish the pamphlet in May 1980.<ref name="Young2019" />