Deborah Haynes: The government has yet to issue…
The government has yet to issue public guidance on how to ready the whole of society for potential war, despite warning almost a year ago of the need to "actively prepare".
Discussions on homeland defence and wider national resilience and readiness are understood to be taking place behind closed doors.
But a network of local authorities and voluntary organisations that would play a key role in every part of the country should the UK ever come under armed attack appears to be largely in the dark about what they should be doing to better prepare.
Sky News has spoken to a number of experts who say that local resilience forums - the regional bodies that are responsible for supporting communities in any kind of emergency, from floods to conflict - need to become a lot more familiar with wartime planning.
Such a move though would require direction and coordination from the Cabinet Office and additional money from the Treasury.
Local government budgets are already stretched and - depending upon the level of government ambition - rebuilding the country's civil preparedness for potential conflict would require a whole new area of expertise, training and responsibility.
This is not an alien concept, however ⬇️
https://x.com/haynesdeborah/status/2058797064398541019?s=20
