Peter Hennessy has unearthed documents suggesting that the UK's nuclear deterrent use during Harold Macmillan's premiership relied on finding a nearby telephone box and ensuring he had sufficient loose change to get through to Number Ten to authorise nuclear retaliation in the event that the Soviets were dastardly enough to attack us when he was outside London. This system persisted to 1970.
It is all rather reminiscent of that scene in Dr Strangelove when Group Captain Mandrake has to persuade Colonel Bat Guano to shoot the lock off a Pepsi machine to make a call to the White House to tell them the recall call for the Bombers. Except that was supposed to be a farce.
I wonder if one of Kubrick's script writers knew something?
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