All politicians lie from time to time.
But in the long and lurid annals of parliamentary mendacity there have been few lies bigger than that uttered by Willie Whitelaw, Margaret Thatcher's home secretary, on February 12 1980. He then published a pamphlet called Protect and Survive, which described some of these DIY defences. If you live in a caravan or other similar accommodation which provides very little protection against fallout, your local authority will be able to advise you on what to do. The manifest lunacy of Protect and Survive had a most salutary effect. By the end of the year, Labour had adopted a non-nuclear defence policy and the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament had recruited thousands of new members.