All homes to receive `don't panic' leaflet on 2000 bug

A GOVERNMENT leaflet warning against stockpiling food and banknotes is to be delivered to every home in the country to calm fears about the millennium bug.

The multi-million pound campaign will be launched next month to reassure the public that the date change will not cripple computers that run supermarkets or cash machines.

European, former Soviet Union and South-East Asian countries whose lack of preparedness pose a threat to travellers abroad will be "named and shamed" this summer.

Ministers have approved the publicity drive after research showed most people wanted to be kept informed of efforts to minimise the bug's impact.

The leaflets will be accompanied by a 16-page, Government-sponsored supplement inserted into all Sunday newspapers next month to dispel myths about the problem.

A Year 2000 Media Co-ordination Unit has been set up within Whitehall to ensure that all Government departments are acting in concert to eradicate or minimise the effects of the change.

The "naming and shaming" of countries most at risk of disruption will be spearheaded by the Foreign Office, although it is expected to wait until the United States announces its own blacklist first.

One minister with responsibility for the millennium bug said countries of "intermediate" wealth were most at risk, but even modern European nations could pose a problem.

He even suggested that he would not fly on New Year's Eve because of fears about air traffic control systems failing.

"What happens if all the radar screens go blank over Italy? I'm not saying it will happen, but we have got to be prepared for all possible scenarios," he said. "Put it this way. I wouldn't fly very far south or east on that date. Who knows what is going to happen?"

The Foreign Office has already warned all travellers to be aware of the possible dangers to air transport, shipping, medical services and power supplies.

Derek Fatchett, the late Foreign Office minister, called earlier this year on the International Air Transport Association (Iata) to publish its secret blacklist of airports whose air traffic control systems could fail. Iata refused to make public its survey of 300 airports around the globe, but could now be forced to do so.

The cost of tackling the bug in all Whitehall departments stands at pounds 420m, with nearly pounds 200m spent by the Ministry of Defence on making safe its weapons and other systems.