Whitehall appears to have considered the traditional technique as a preparation for winter blackouts
Copier carbon paper has been used “stress-tested”Whitehall staffers prepare to face potential blackouts during winter, according to the Financial Times, which cited three sources familiar with the matter.
You can use the old-fashioned copying method for internal correspondence within government. This was proven during emergency drills.
“The idea is you’d have people running up and down Whitehall handing out carbon copies of documents to colleagues at other departments or agencies, to keep people in touch,”One of the officials spoke to the newspaper.
All of this is to address concerns about maintaining government communication in times of crisis.
According to the newspaper, carbon paper was one of the components of drills conducted in various departments to test the ability of government employees to function during major crises like a massive energy blackout or nuclear conflict.
These emergency drills were part of a cross-government program, Yarrow. It was established in 2021. “to improve planning and resilience by central and local government and industry for dealing with a national power outage,”Officials claimed that it had nothing to do with the current conflict between Russia, Ukraine.
“This program predates those events,”One of the officials said so.
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Boris Johnson suggests Brits buy new kettles in an effort to conserve energy
According to the reports, it was unclear whether Whitehall had rediscovered mechanical typewriters and switched to using carbon paper. Invented in the 19th century and used for more than 100 years, carbon paper was still the most popular way to multiply documents before the advent of photocopying technology.
The British leadership has not yet sent out mixed signals regarding the possibility of energy rationing and blackouts this winter. Boris Johnson (outgoing British PM) urged Britons to buy new kettles this week in an effort to cut down on energy consumption.
“If you have an old kettle that takes ages to boil, it may cost you £20 to replace it, but if you get a new one, you’ll save £10 a year every year on your electricity bill,”Johnson made these remarks in Thursday’s final speech about policy.
Liz Truss has been the Tory leader, and the PM. Rishi, on the other hand, is less positive. “Many European countries are looking at how we can all optimize our energy usage, that is a sensible thing for us to be doing as a country,”He said it this week.
