"It was also the war room, the decision taking forum for transition to world war three," Peter Hennessy, Professor of Contemporary British History at Queen Mary, University of London, has said.But what was set up for handling the first miners strike in 1972 or even the potential outbreak of war, was found to be inadequate by the end of the century, according to Peter Riddell, the Director of the Institute for Government. COBR stands for Cabinet Office Briefing Room - while the A … It has been convened in recent years for the 7 July London bombings, the fuel protests and 11 September attack. COBRA is an acronym for a set of meeting rooms in the UK Cabinet Office in Whitehall. Whilst the get-togethers in Whitehall about the Olympics are routine and in the diary, as opposed to hastily assembled in response to a particular incident, expect those in government to tell us yes, it is a meeting, but no, it is not a Cobra.The move comes after 66 new cases of coronavirus were recorded in the Greater Glasgow and Clyde area. This service is provided on News Group Newspapers' Limited's Our journalists strive for accuracy but on occasion we make mistakes. With just a few days to go until the opening ceremony, the prime minister chaired a meeting on Monday involving senior ministers, Olympic organisers and those responsible for security. Cobra meetings bring politicians, the police and security services together Sometimes, conscious of the potential for a mass outbreak of media hype, it is more useful for them to talk down the significance of such a meeting.The build up to the Olympics is a case in point. "The Sun", "Sun", "Sun Online" are registered trademarks or trade names of News Group Newspapers Limited. It is popularly referred to as COBRA.
Whenever there's a crisis in the UK, one thing that often swiftly follows is a Cobra meeting.To the public, a Cobra meeting is generally when members of the government meet to discuss the response to a given issue.That is largely the case, however there is a little more detail than that...Despite sounding as though it's named after a venomous breed of snake - which would be an appropriate metaphor given the purpose of the meetings - Cobra is actually an acronym for a series of rooms in the Cabinet Office in 70 Whitehall.You'll sometimes see it referred to as COBR, which stands for: Cabinet Office Briefing Room.The A is believed to stand for briefing room A, however it's unclear whether that's actually the case - room F was the most commonly-used when the meetings first began to take place.While Cobra does refer to that set of rooms in the Cabinet Office, the term is shorthand for the 'Civil Contingencies Committee', which is the group of people who meet inside the rooms to discuss various issues.When someone says "Cobra is meeting", what they actually mean is "members of the Civil Contingencies Committee are convening in the Cabinet Office".According to the Institute for Government, the term was born when an emergency situation centre was developed for the government to review its response to the the 1972 miners’ strike.Unlike a Cabinet meeting - where frontbenchers meet the prime minister - there is no rigid register for who should attend a Cobra meeting and not even The composition of any Cobra meeting depends on the issue that is to be discussed.According to the Institute for Government, it's usually made up of officials and agency personnel, alongside ministers, from relevant departments and agencies.For example, as the government discusses its response to the coronavirus outbreak, England's Chief Medical Officer Chris Whitty attends.On the other hand, following a terror attack Mr Whitty would not attend, but perhaps the UK's top police officer, Met Commissioner Cressida Dick, would.The meetings are usually chaired by the most senior and most relevant minister in the room, plus the prime minister.So it's likely that Prime Minister Johnson and Health Secretary Matt Hancock are chairing coronavirus Cobra meetings.The purpose of a Cobra meeting is to discuss high-level coordination and decision-making in the face of a crisis, according to the Institute for Government.The crisis could be a range of things, including natural disasters, terrorist attacks, major industrial accidents, and as coronavirus has demonstrated, threats to public health.Chairing a Cobra meeting is often a good way for a prime minister to demonstrate to the public how he or she has a grip on a situation but the relevant people will usually already have been making decisions well before a meeting is called.According to the Institute for Government, Cobra's purpose is to "keep ministers appraised of the situation, to ensure that the wider response of the government is coordinated, to record and disseminate key decisions and updates to all relevant ministers and officials, and to provide ministers and the prime minister with up to date information on the situation for any decisions that they may need to make". In most cases Cobra … In America, the Situation Room provides roughly the same function.Having originally been formed in response to the miner’s strike in 1972, past COBRA meetings have also been called to deal with issues like the fire-fighters’ strike, terrorist attacks across Europe and the US, and the As well as the Prime Minister, who usually chairs meetings, they are attended by a cross-departmental range of senior ministers, security officials, military chiefs, emergency services leaders and civil servants.The acronym refers to the briefing room rather than a particular committee within government, so there is no fixed guest list.The attendees change according to the nature of the crisis – for the coronavirus meeting, it is expected that the likes of chief medical officer Prof Chris Whitty and chief scientific adviser Sir Patrick Vallance will be in attendance.The coronavirus outbreak is continuing to worsen in the UK, with Mr Johnson last night preparing the nation for the prospect of draconian new restrictions to combat Covid-19.New measures could include closing parks, imposing curfews and restricting travel, and come after widespread reports of people “heedlessly” gathering in open spaces and on beaches.The Prime Minister said the government would be thinking “very, very actively in the next 24 hours” over the need to take “tougher measures” in response to the accelerating death toll from the infection.“The numbers are very stark, and they are accelerating. Clearly if it looks like a Cobra and it sounds like a Cobra, it doesn't necessarily mean it is a Cobra. Take the eighteen months. Cobra meetings, or Cobr meetings as they are often also called, are named after Cabinet Office Briefing Room A on Whitehall.
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