“Keep calm and carry on.” We all know that famous second world war poster, don’t we? But it’s illusory: the poster was never publicly displayed during the war and only discovered by chance decades later.
Illusions bedevil our readiness to cope with the crises we might face. Reviewing the state of UK civil food resilience for a National Preparedness Commission report, I found that there is, in fact, scant preparedness going on, and little attention given to involving the public.