Former Armed Forces Minister James Heappey says the UK must prepare for war, despite being “far behind”.
According to foreign media, former armed forces minister, James Heappey, has stated that the United Kingdom must prepare for war.
Foreign media reported that Heappey wrote that many government departments had refused to practice evacuation to a bunker.
Heappey said that preparing the nation for war is the best way to maximize the chance of peace, although according to him, the UK is far behind in this aspect.
Indicating how foreign the idea of armed conflict has become for most officials in Whitehall, James Heappey said that many departments had refused the opportunity to participate in a “whole government” exercise to practice evacuation to a bunker in case of war.
It was an exercise that former Defence Secretary Ben Wallace had encouraged “to get people into the bunker so they could see what their working environment would be like in war,” Heappey wrote in an article for the Sunday Telegraph.
“In the end, it was only defense ministers, senior military officers, and officials from the Ministry of Defence (Defence Ministry) who took part,” he said.
This was a shame because the exercise “would have exposed how outdated many of our procedures are now,” said Mr. Heappey, who resigned as Minister for the Armed Forces last month.
Officials have started to develop an intergovernmental “national defense plan” amid warnings from ministers that the UK has moved into a “pre-war world”.
