Your Letters of Last Resort
The Letters of Last Resort are four handwritten documents with identical wording, prepared by the prime minister of the United Kingdom and addressed to the commanding officers of the four British ballistic missile submarines. These letters set out instructions on the actions to be taken if a nuclear attack has destroyed the British government and has resulted in the death or incapacitation of both the prime minister and their designated successor. If these instructions are carried out, they would constitute the final official act of His Majesty's Government.
Typically, the prime minister chooses one of four options, although his or her decision isn't limited.
1. Retaliate
2. Do not retaliate
3. Use your own judgment
4. Place the submarine under the command of another country, e.g. the USA or Australia
The contents of the Letters of Last Resort are only known to the author who wrote them; they are destroyed, unopened, when the prime minister leaves office (other than in the circumstances above).
Writing these letters must, surely, be the hardest, most crucial, monumental and nerve-wracking act any prime minister - anyone - would have to do.
What would your Letters of Last Resort include? Which of the four options would you choose? Or would you make another choice?
(This is an invitation to anyone to consider what options they would take; it's absolutely not an invitation to speculate on what future, current or former authors might have written).
Comments
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Dear submarine captain.
Congratulations. You are still alive. Do not retaliate.
Please remember to cancel the phone direct debit.
Could I recommend the Cape Verde Islands?
Regards
The Prime minister (ex).8 -
Blow the bastards to kingdom come.0
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1) If you have Trident missiles just to let you know they don't work
2) if you've been at sea for the past month just to let you know England lost on penalties.....AGAIN.
3) If you do launch please remember to cancel the milk.
4) dont forget you still have 2 options left....
Phone a friend
Ask the audience.4 -
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Number 4. Delete my search history.0
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1, Deliver Full Response to Primary Targets
2, Deliver Full Response to Secondary Targets
3, Nuke Selhurst Park
4, Nuke Den4 -
I obviously appreciate that this is meant in jest however it may be closer to decision time than we would like to think.
Putin without doubt is certifiably crazy. He has one aim and that is to rebuild the Soviet Union which is never going to happen as they do not have the military force to succeed in that aim. He has strategicly under estimated the response of the west and also Ukraines determination. When he finally realises that he is crazy enough to do something unthinkable. I think the best hope we have is that his nuclear arsenal is not in any condition to use and he is bluffing1 -
Nuke Selhurst Park…0
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Chizz said:
The Letters of Last Resort are four handwritten documents with identical wording, prepared by the prime minister of the United Kingdom and addressed to the commanding officers of the four British ballistic missile submarines. These letters set out instructions on the actions to be taken if a nuclear attack has destroyed the British government and has resulted in the death or incapacitation of both the prime minister and their designated successor. If these instructions are carried out, they would constitute the final official act of His Majesty's Government.
Typically, the prime minister chooses one of four options, although his or her decision isn't limited.
1. Retaliate
2. Do not retaliate
3. Use your own judgment
4. Place the submarine under the command of another country, e.g. the USA or Australia
The contents of the Letters of Last Resort are only known to the author who wrote them; they are destroyed, unopened, when the prime minister leaves office (other than in the circumstances above).
Writing these letters must, surely, be the hardest, most crucial, monumental and nerve-wracking act any prime minister - anyone - would have to do.
What would your Letters of Last Resort include? Which of the four options would you choose? Or would you make another choice?
(This is an invitation to anyone to consider what options they would take; it's absolutely not an invitation to speculate on what future, current or former authors might have written).
1 - Sponsored links:
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You'd need to include a link to download the Just Eat Nuke app wouldn't you?0
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By the looks of it, someone has gone early and hit the button! 🤯letthegoodtimesroll said:Nuke Selhurst Park…2 -
15 quids worth of damageletthegoodtimesroll said:Nuke Selhurst Park…4 -
Gribbo said:
15 quids worth of improvementsletthegoodtimesroll said:Nuke Selhurst Park…
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I don't think he has the ultimate power to start a Nuclear War which will destroy Russia. They have safeguards in Russia incredibly. I think Putin would have to convince the chains of command that such a war would be winnable which I think is impossible.AndyG said:I obviously appreciate that this is meant in jest however it may be closer to decision time than we would like to think.
Putin without doubt is certifiably crazy. He has one aim and that is to rebuild the Soviet Union which is never going to happen as they do not have the military force to succeed in that aim. He has strategicly under estimated the response of the west and also Ukraines determination. When he finally realises that he is crazy enough to do something unthinkable. I think the best hope we have is that his nuclear arsenal is not in any condition to use and he is bluffing1 -
1. Retaliate.
If someone's nuked us, chances are by the time we try to retaliate, someone else already would have anyway.
If one nuke gets dropped, this time around, every nuke gets dropped IMO1 -
Dear Submarine Commanders, I have placed a £50 Yankee bet that the Royal Mail will be able to deliver four letters to four nuclear submarines which could be in any of the world's oceans. I know it sounds ridiculous, but I got fantastic odds on this happening. If you have received this letter please make contact with your sister ships to see how many of them have their letters. Then get down to Joe Coral and take them for everything. With the proceeds, you should all be able to retire and live the life of Riley in a post apocalyptic scenario. Either, that or you might just have enough money to pay the cost of four first class stamps. Toodle pip.0
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I tried to explain how it all beginsHow its all destroyed and built againI knew that you could not believe meBut now you're here and it's differentHow the light shines in your eyesIn every second or situIt's then that I realizedThat the world as we know itThe High speed trainWe'll pick it all up and start again0 -
Can you imagine what Liz Truss’ letter said …!5
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The whole point of the nuclear deterrent is mutually assured destruction. There is only one option, otherwise the basis of the deterrent is flawed.
Retaliate.2 - Sponsored links:
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ps. the possible existence of a "letter of last resort" is stated on Wikipedia.SporadicAddick said:The whole point of the nuclear deterrent is mutually assured destruction. There is only one option, otherwise the basis of the deterrent is flawed.
Retaliate.
On that basis, I'm pretty sure that even the best of the Russian intelligence service will know about it.
Even if there are options other than "retaliate" I'm sure the Russians are only aware of one possible outcome.1 -
If the Government has been destroyed, who holds the letters? Who sends them?
Furthermore, it is likely that all communication methods would be down, so how are they sent?Or are they already with the submarines? Big risk if the subs are damaged or captured.0 -
Process
[edit]A new prime minister writes a set of letters immediately after taking office and being told by the Chief of the Defence Staff "precisely what damage a Trident missile could cause".[4] The documents are then delivered to the submarines in sealed envelopes, and the previous prime minister's letters are destroyed without being opened.[B][5]
In the event of the deaths of both the prime minister and the designated alternative decision-maker as a result of a nuclear strike, the commander(s) of any nuclear submarine(s) on patrol at the time would use a series of checks to ascertain whether the letters of last resort must be opened.[6]
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I have changed my position over the years from somebody who was against nuclear weapons to somebody who is reluctantly for them. Of course, the point of them and the reason I am now for them is they are so terrible that nobody will use them. Some may argue that they were used in Japan but I would respond that Japan didn't have the capacity to send some back. Now what a nuclear power sows, they will also reap.
I have absolutely no fear of Putin's threats whatsoever. As long as we don't use them on him, he won't use them on us. That is also why, I am surprised there are four options. Surely the only option should be to retaliate. And that option is taken with a view that you won't have to.2 -
What are the capabilities/limitations of our nuclear subs in terms of retaliatory response?
I get the feeling it would be like somebody asking 4 rubber ducks to block the plug hole after somebody emptied the bath1 -
Those with a suicide mindset don’t worry about assured destruction if looking to bomb some crowded place, or seek suicide by cop in some kind of violent escapade.
From that I conclude that a person or people with a similar mindset won’t mind about mutually assured destruction with nuclear weapons.
If the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland or anybody else fires off a nuclear bomb the planet and all life as we know it will be finished.
I don’t believe there exists tactical or battlefield nuclear weapons that have a limited impact and radioactive fall out, is there evidence of that?
If we are attacked, in the nanosecond before we are all vaporised there will be no comfort to be gained by me that there is retaliation or little kids elsewhere are being vaporised.
The money spent on nuclear armed submarines or whatever else would, in my view, be better spent on conventional forces that would not lead to the end of all life on planet earth.
If nuclear weapons are so necessary how come everybody doesn’t have them, like Haiti being a nuclear armed country? In my lifetime it started with the UK, China, France, Russia and the USA with nuclear weapons, it has since leaked out to a lot of other places, it might soon be under the control of space exploring rich individuals like Elton Mask, how soon before nuclear arms leak out to a suicide bomber?
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Dear Madam Submarine Commander,
In the event of nuclear apocalypse you and your crew are instructed to proceed to the most remote island still habitable and start all over again. Do not fuck it up this time.
However, this Order is caveated that before proceeding to the aforementioned island you must, be whatever means necessary, confirm the deaths of the following and, if not, complete the task of removing them from any potential future gene pool:
Nigel Farage
Donald Trump
Vladimir Putin
Anyone else called Trump or Putin
Boris Johnson
Stanley Johnson
Jacob Rees-Mogg
Any other surviving member of the British Cabinet 2010-2024
Rupert Murdoch
Anyone else called Murdoch
Julia Hartley-Brewer
Tommy Robinson
Piers Morgan
Kelvin Mackenzie
Anyone who's ever liked anything written by the above
That bloke behind Mrs Brown's Boys
Roland Duchâtelet
Kevin Muscat
Pepe
Michael McIntyre
[See also Appendices A - M for full list of targets]
Have fun.
Yours in hope,
PM Bournemouth Addick.
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1/4 & 2/3 are the same surely?usetobunkin said:1, Deliver Full Response to Primary Targets
2, Deliver Full Response to Secondary Targets
3, Nuke Selhurst Park
4, Nuke Den0 -
3 is the only potentially forgiveable one but the problem is if you nuke Sellout Park, you will almost certainly take The Valley with it!0
