News

The November edition of the Resilience First newsletter, with the theme of 'Learning Lessons', includes features on:

Whatever one’s view of Brexit, there is one key element of resilience that has been brought to the fore as a result of preparing to depart the EU. That is the topic of ‘redundancy’, namely the spare capacity to meet unknown levels of demand or disruption. This back-up component confers a degree of flexibility as events rarely go to plan. The military frequently use the term ‘reserves’ for this spare capacity, and no battle plan would pass muster unless some unit had been allocated as the reserve; if this was deployed, another reserve would have to be found.

With the collapse of Monarch in 2017 and now the demise of Thomas Cook, the travel industry – and particularly airports – is facing unprecedented pressures. The return of around 150,000 passengers to the UK, known as Operation Matterhorn, is the largest repatriation since WW2. This will place strains on airlines and airports alike: both need to demonstrate resilience.

The Indepen Forum on 10 July 2018 will cover issues of resilience in the infrastructure of the south east of England and the role investors can play.

Staff at the UK’s biggest summer events are to be trained in how to react in the event of a terrorist incident as part of Counter Terrorism Policing’s second annual ‘Summer Security’ campaign.

Marshall McLuhan coined the term “the Global Village” over half a century ago. The inference was that everywhere had become our neighbourhood. Through media coverage of other countries we know something of what it is like to be threatened by ISIS, to suffer extreme weather or to be exposed to fallout from a nuclear accident. In effect, what happens “over there” doesn’t stay over there. We cannot insulate ourselves from the dynamics that affect resilience elsewhere in the world.