Speech drafted for Britain's queen to prepare nation for nuclear war

It's the British queen's speech that nobody ever wants to hear. In 1983, senior civil servants drafted a message they envisaged the monarch might have to deliver to the nation on the eve of all-out nuclear war with Russia.

The message, rousing and bleak in equal measure, was prepared during a secret government exercise designed to test Britain's reaction to international developments that tilted the world to the brink of a third world war. In it, Queen Elizabeth would describe the "madness of war" and "the deadly power of abused technology" and call on Britain to summon the spirit of two world wars in its battle to survive.

The speech forms part of a 320-page war games scenario - codenamed Wintex-Cimex 83 - which was drawn up by intelligence, defence and Home Office (interior ministry) staff. It's revealed in documents released yesterday by the National Archives, which evokes the shadow of nuclear armageddon that hung over Britain 30 years ago.

The address begins by recalling her last broadcast, when "the horrors of war could not have seemed more remote as my family and I shared Christmas joy".

She continues: "Our brave country must again prepare itself to survive against great odds. I have never forgotten the sorrow and pride I felt as my sister and I huddled around the nursery wireless set listening to my father's inspiring words on that fateful day in 1939. Not for a single moment did I imagine that this solemn and awful duty would one day fall to me."