Preparing for Emergencies was a public information campaign produced by the

Home Office The Home Office (HO), also known (especially in official papers and when referred to in Parliament) as the Home Department, is the United Kingdom's interior ministry. It is responsible for public safety and policing, border security, immigr ...

, a department of the

United Kingdom Government His Majesty's Government, abbreviated to HM Government or otherwise UK Government, is the central executive authority of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

. It advised

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. * British national identity, the characteristics of British people and culture ...

citizens on what to do in the event of a

natural disaster A natural disaster is the very harmful impact on a society or community brought by natural phenomenon or Hazard#Natural hazard, hazard. Some examples of natural hazards include avalanches, droughts, earthquakes, floods, heat waves, landslides ...

, accident or

terrorism Terrorism, in its broadest sense, is the use of violence against non-combatants to achieve political or ideological aims. The term is used in this regard primarily to refer to intentional violence during peacetime or in the context of war aga ...

. The campaign began on 26 July 2004 in the wake of several major disasters, such as the 11 March 2004 Madrid train bombings,

SARS Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) is a viral respiratory disease of zoonotic origin caused by the virus SARS-CoV-1, the first identified strain of the SARS-related coronavirus. The first known cases occurred in November 2002, and the ...

, and the

2001 UK foot and mouth crisis The outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease in the United Kingdom in 2001 caused a crisis in British agriculture and tourism. This epizootic saw 2,000 cases of the disease on farms across most of the British countryside. Over 6 million cows and ...

. The campaign was in the form of a 22-page booklet which covered topics such as transport accidents, health,

foot and mouth disease Foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) or hoof-and-mouth disease (HMD) is an infectious and sometimes fatal viral disease that primarily affects even-toed ungulates, including domestic and wild bovids. The virus causes a high fever lasting two to six d ...

, terrorism, and fire safety. The booklet was distributed to all UK households but received some criticism – comparing it to ''

Protect and Survive ''Protect and Survive'' was a public information campaign on civil defence. Produced by the British government between 1974 and 1980, it intended to advise the public on how to protect themselves during a nuclear attack. The campaign comprise ...

'', a 1980s series of

public information film Public information films (PIFs) are a series of government-commissioned short films, shown during television advertising breaks in the United Kingdom. The name is sometimes also applied, ''faute de mieux'', to similar films from other countries, ...

s and a booklet that instructed people on how to remain safe from

nuclear war Nuclear warfare, also known as atomic warfare, is a War, military conflict or prepared Policy, political strategy that deploys nuclear weaponry. Nuclear weapons are Weapon of mass destruction, weapons of mass destruction; in contrast to conven ...

. Some sections of the media also accused the government of "scaremongering". Within a day of the website accompanying the booklet being launched, a

parody A parody is a creative work designed to imitate, comment on, and/or mock its subject by means of satire, satirical or irony, ironic imitation. Often its subject is an Originality, original work or some aspect of it (theme/content, author, style, e ...

website under the

URL A uniform resource locator (URL), colloquially known as an address on the Web, is a reference to a resource that specifies its location on a computer network and a mechanism for retrieving it. A URL is a specific type of Uniform Resource Identi ...

preparingforemergencies.co.uk was created by English

YouTuber A YouTuber is a content creator and social media influencer who uploads or creates videos on the online video-sharing website YouTube, typically posting to their personal YouTube channel. The term was first used in the English language in 2006 ...

and web developer Tom Scott, who was a

linguistics Linguistics is the scientific study of language. The areas of linguistic analysis are syntax (rules governing the structure of sentences), semantics (meaning), Morphology (linguistics), morphology (structure of words), phonetics (speech sounds ...

student at the

University of York The University of York (abbreviated as or ''York'' for Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a public Collegiate university, collegiate research university in York, England. Established in 1963, the university has expanded to more than thir ...

at the time. Presented as being from "HM Department of Vague Paranoia", it parodied the seemingly obvious advice given by the booklets, and gave advice such as: "Alien Invasion: Negotiate using

sign language Sign languages (also known as signed languages) are languages that use the visual-manual modality to convey meaning, instead of spoken words. Sign languages are expressed through manual articulation in combination with #Non-manual elements, no ...

, if possible. Failing that, and assuming they aren't armed with futuristic

ray gun A raygun is a science-fiction directed-energy weapon usually with destructive effect.Jeff Prucher, '' Brave New Words: The Oxford Dictionary of Science Fiction,'' Oxford University Press, 2007, page 162 They have various names: ray gun, de ...

s, run like hell". The Home Office initially objected to the website, stating that the URL was too similar to that of their own website, preparingforemergencies.gov.uk, and demanded the website be taken down. However, after a link to the official website was added, the Home Office conceded the issue, and allowed the site to remain online. Following the original distribution, no more booklets have been produced, although the website was updated with advice on possible bird flu

epidemic An epidemic (from Greek ἐπί ''epi'' "upon or above" and δῆμος ''demos'' "people") is the rapid spread of disease to a large number of hosts in a given population within a short period of time. For example, in meningococcal infection ...

s and the

7 July 2005 London bombings The 7 July 2005 London bombings, also referred to as 7/7, were a series of four co-ordinated suicide attacks carried out by Islamist terrorists that targeted commuters travelling on Transport in London, London's public transport during the ...

. In 2011–2012 the website was permanently closed, and official emergency preparedness information for the UK was moved to the gov.uk website.

Logo

The components of the logo are used to indicate resources or actions to follow during an emergency. From left to right, they are: *"i" on blue background - Information *"999" on purple background - What to do in an emergency (Emergency Services) *Right arrow on green background - Go in *Lock on red background - Stay in *Dash on yellow background - Tune in (to local radio or television) *Plus on turquoise background - Administer

first aid First aid is the first and immediate assistance given to any person with a medical emergency, with care provided to preserve life, prevent the condition from worsening, or to promote recovery until medical services arrive. First aid is gener ...

The logo is still used by local government organizations giving information on civil defence. The development of the logo cost £17,000 in 2004.

References

External links

Current version of Preparing for Emergencies
* ttp://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20120905094348/http://direct.gov.uk/en/homeandcommunity/inyourhome/dealingwithemergencies/preparingforemergencies/index.htm Preparing for Emergencies- archive of the website from

The National Archives (United Kingdom) The National Archives (TNA; ) is a non-ministerial government department, non-ministerial department of the Government of the United Kingdom. Its parent department is the Department for Culture, Media and Sport of the United Kingdom, United K ...

from September 2012, shortly before

Directgov Directgov was the Her Majesty's Government, British government's digital service portal which from 2004 provided a single point of access to public sector information and services. The site's portal was replaced (along with the Business Link po ...

was replaced by gov.uk
The Preparing for Emergencies booklet
- archive at The National Archives Emergency management in the United Kingdom

Logo

See also

References

External links