The Emperor’s New Clothes: Thinking about Becky Burchell’s Podcast Episode

By Sandy Glanfield

What struck me most in my conversation with Becky Burchell was her belief that nuclear weapons were never needed, and still are not.

Despite growing up in the 1980s with the constant threat of nuclear war discussed openly around her dinner table, despite being given all the explanations about deterrence, economics, jobs and power, Becky said she has never been convinced. Even now, she does not see the sense in it. If we did not create weapons capable of destroying everything we love, there would be no need to justify their existence.

What we call naive, she suggests, may simply be clear seeing.

Becky grew up with activist parents deeply involved in the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament. Nuclear war was not an abstract concept. It was personal. It was imagined in detail. What would happen to the land, the food, the water, the people she loved. Alongside this fear sat a deep connection to nature and a childhood immersed in stories. Fiction became a way of understanding threat, loss and responsibility, but also of imagining alternatives.

Listening to her, I was struck by how familiar this feels now. The existential threats of her childhood are echoed today in environmental breakdown, war, and systems of power that feel immovable and self justifying. We are told again and again that this is simply how the world works. That there is no other way. That to think otherwise is naive.

Becky’s insight cuts through that. It is not that we cannot imagine different futures. It is that our systems do not allow us to. They train us to accept harm as necessary and complexity as an excuse for inaction. They reward compliance and silence, and quietly discourage simple moral questions.

This brought to mind the story of the emperor’s new clothes. A system upheld by everyone’s agreement not to see what is plainly visible. And it is a child, unconditioned and clear eyed, who names the truth.

There is something deeply resonant here for me. A reminder of the quieter voice inside that says we need to be kinder. That we need to see one another more fully. That if we built our systems around care, dignity and mutual respect, many of the things we accept as inevitable would no longer make sense.

This is where the Golden Rule feels less like a moral ideal and more like a practical challenge. Treat others as you would wish to be treated. If we truly held that at the centre of our decisions, our stories and our structures would have to change.

Becky’s work, and this conversation, is a reminder that imagination is not indulgent. It is essential. That questioning what we have been told is necessary is not naive. It may be the most responsible thing we can do.