18 June 2022

We need bold ideas in this new age of resilience

William Hague

When I became an MP in 1989, the Cold War was just coming to an end but local councils were still charged with preparing for the aftermath of nuclear holocaust. I remember being shown the bunker, with tins of baked beans and oxygen supplies, from which part of Yorkshire would somehow still be governed amid the devastation. Since it was only yards beneath the ground and close to our largest army base, it seemed highly unlikely that it would survive at all, but at least some hope of resilience was built into the system.

With the collapse of the USSR, resilience went out of our thinking and we entered three decades of happy fragility. We had reached the end of history and even abolished boom.

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