Disaster planning

[bunn]

If Great Cthulhu devours the Houses of Parliament during, say the State Opening of Parliament, and removes at a stroke all Members of Parliament, all members of the House of Lords, the Privy Council, the Monarch and all the senior Royals...

Who is left in charge?

Comments

[bunn.livejournal.com]

How many of the Privy Council are outside London, I wonder? I imagine Great Cthulhu as creating a certain amount of collateral damage. Probably not the neatest of catastrophes.

Likewise I feel a great deal of the Civil Service might get Tentacled. The Welsh Office and DEFRA would survive, but I imagine might take a little while to get to grips with their new situation.

[parrot-knight.livejournal.com]

And, of course, the Scottish civil service in Edinburgh, still part of the British civil service.

[bunn.livejournal.com]

I'm imagining the Welsh / Scottish / DEFRA turf wars now...

But I suppose the military would be involved at least initially. One might need to ensure that, say, Hastur the Defiler made a lightning strike on Portsmouth and Andover, which are conveniently closely situated for the convenience of Eldrich Things From the Abyss.

[parrot-knight.livejournal.com]

Don't forget all the staff of the agencies scattered around the country, whose low morale at not being full civil servants might be overcome by finding they are almost the only civil servants...

[bunn.livejournal.com]

True. I imagine the Met office for example, being of relatively little help, but there's a good network of local chief executives who might step up. I am a little terrified by the concept of local councillors leaping into the breach, however.

[jane-somebody.livejournal.com]

It's not just agencies, though. I know of at least one civil service Department with offices in Coventry and Sheffield (maybe others? Darlington?) as well as London.

[bunn.livejournal.com]

*makes note that Coventry & Sheffield will Need to be Dealt With*

[parrot-knight.livejournal.com]

True!

[torkell]

This then begs the question of how well Eldritch Abominations would fair against a modern military. I'm reminded of a moment from Buffy, where the monster-of-the-week discovers that "No weapon forged can defeat me!" doesn't include rocket launchers.

[bunn.livejournal.com]

It's a valid point. Although, I imagine that modern military rarely train with Eldrich Abominations in mind, so might initially be handicapped by lack of tactics, attempting to negotiate etc.

And I'm guessing that a surprise attack on Andover would be *very* surprising.

[philmophlegm.livejournal.com]

That's basically the premise of the Monster Hunter novels! (You should try them (if you haven't already). I've read the first and it was great fun. (Although making the hero be an accountant makes me naturally biased...)

[torkell]

Do you mean this one? Which I've just downloaded - yay for Baen Free Library!

[philmophlegm.livejournal.com]

Yeah that's the one. Don't expect highbrow literature, but the guy writes great action scenes.

[damerell.livejournal.com]

I believe it is fairly well established that if you nuke Cthulhu a) you now have bits of radioactive Cthulhu everywhere and b) after about half an hour he reassembles himself and he is now Very Annoyed.

[po8crg.livejournal.com]

I always wanted someone in that episode to just say "we don't use forges any more"

[stevegreen.livejournal.com]

So, the SNP would finally get to run the UK. That might explain those odd Instagrams of Nicola Sturgeon in a long flowing robe, sacrificing the last female virgin in Glasgow.

[bunn.livejournal.com]

OK, I laughed.

[stevegreen.livejournal.com]

In which case, my work is done.

[siliconshaman.livejournal.com]

I think she'd better double check that virgin's credentials, there's still no sign of Cthulhu emerging.

[bunn.livejournal.com]

... and now I feel terribly embarrassed, because I actually had to look up who the First Minister for Wales IS (it's Carwyn Jones).

[stevegreen.livejournal.com]

I wouldn't fret. Most people in Wales would, too.