Now that the Prime Minister is settled in No 10 Downing Street, the detailed business of the transition of power has begun. This highlights the importance of consultations between the Prime Minister and the President to agree the nuclear release before it was too late. The evolution of British nuclear release in the 1970s and 1980s occurred amidst the backdrop of massive changes to the civil defence planning for nuclear attack. To that end:“the intention is that after formal appointment by the Prime Minister during a period of rising tension, the First Deputy would take post in Whitehall and be ready to cover any unavoidable absence by the Prime Minister. This chilling statement, prepared as a contingency paper for a previous incoming new government and Prime Minister (and released to the National Archives over a decade ago), sets out the difficult conversations a newly arrived Prime Minister would have to have early in their time in office.