The Sickening Role of Blackpool Rock in 1980s Nuclear War Planning
Blackpool rock: the perfect souvenir of a traditional British seaside holiday. One nibble on that stick of stripy sugar, and many a homeward bound holiday maker has been transported back to happy memories of their time by the sea. The fruity flavour, the mystery of how they make the tiny letters inside the stick, the little picture of the Blackpool tower on the label… All these elements make a stick of rock the sweetest thing to remember a holiday by. Blackpool rock’s nostalgic properties would have taken on a far more sinister air if nuclear had ever broken out, however. Thanks to chilling plans made by Lancashire County Council in 1983, survivors of a thermonuclear attack would have found themselves sucking on sticks of rock amidst radioactive rubble, the holiday memento having become one of their main sources of nutrition and energy. Far from reminding survivors of a pleasant jaunt beside the seaside, the sticks of rock would serve as haunting relics of a world lost forever in the s...