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.<p>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.
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.
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.<p>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.
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.<p><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gSrJNa--Oq8" rel="nofollow">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gSrJNa--Oq8</a> (5:25)
The most frightening and realistic depiction of a nuclear holocaust that I've seen is a 1984 BBC film called <i>Threads.</i>[1][2]<p>You can watch it for free on youtube.[3]<p>[1] - <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Threads" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Threads</a><p>[2] - <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0090163/" rel="nofollow">http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0090163/</a><p>[3] - <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_MCbTvoNrAg" rel="nofollow">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_MCbTvoNrAg</a>