The British Government agonized over a global shortage of tea following a nuclear war, newly release papers have disclosed.

“The tea position would be very serious with a loss of 75 percent of stocks and substantial delays in imports and with no system of rationing it would be wrong to consider that even one ounce (28 grams) per head per week could be ensured,” the papers from 1954 and 1956 said. “No satisfactory solution has yet been found.”

Accompanying papers released by the UK National Archives discussed other food shortages.

You can just imagine the scene from a Monty Python sketch now: fine English gentleman taking tea while the world around them died from radiation.

(via Spacewar)