The Government advice re emergency packs

Perhaps it would be a good idea if the government explained why we should make these preparations exactly what are they suspecting might happen and why. Why should we suddenly have no power or water. Suspect they know more than they are letting on.

TillyTrotter

I would not like to be depending on some of you in an emergency.
I can only think that some of you rely on your next of kin /families to sort everything out for you.
(ducking ready for the inevitable retorts 🙂)

Some posters say they have no intention of being prepared for what they deny will ever happen. I wonder whether they insure their cars against the accidents that they don't intend to be involved in?

Some others expect "the government" to drive round the doors daily with a van, issuing everyone with their ration of water and their meals of hot food for the day, and hand out free wind-up radios, extra blankets, boxes of candles and matches.

Already, some US posters on FB seem to believe that the UK's wartime rations were given out free and were on top of what you bought as usual for yourself. It is a surprise to them to discover that rationing was a restriction on what you could legally buy in a country effectively under siege, so as to prevent the wealthiest buying up whatever was available leaving empty shelves for the rest.

Time may re-educate a lot of optimists.

Some others expect "the government" to drive round the doors daily

I'm sorry I must have missed this?

merlotgran

^I have bottled water and lots of soft drinks^

Am I being dense here? Won’t there be water coming out of the taps?

Erm, sorry but yes you are and no it quite possibly won't. And, even if water does come out of the taps, it won't necessarily be clean enough to drink!
Everything that comes to us gets here by a complicated route which is easily disrupted at any point along the way. Gas, electricity, water, food, clothing, general supplies, radio/tv broadcasts, phone communication, postal deliveries, Internet, petrol/deisel (and, knocking on from those, delivery trucks, trains, planes, everything that's needed to live from day to day). Never has it been more true that no man (or woman) is an island.
The same is true of everything that is taken away. Sewage, grey water, general garbage, litter, refuse, garden waste, recycling, hospital waste, industrial waste, dead bodies....
It can be hard to appreciate just how mentally passive and dependent we have become upon the substructures which allow us to take things for granted. Nothing in modern life is a naturally-occurring phenomenon - it all needs a long chain of linked events in order to work, and each link is a potential weakness - not just a physical weakness but an electronic and IT weakness too now.
This isn't scaremongering, defeatism or weird-o Preppers' madness. It's hard, grown-up realism.

greyfur16

*Some others expect "the government" to drive round the doors daily*

I'm sorry I must have missed this?

Does the whole thing frighten you so much?

rosie1959

Perhaps it would be a good idea if the government explained why we should make these preparations exactly what are they suspecting might happen and why. Why should we suddenly have no power or water. Suspect they know more than they are letting on.

They don't need to. If you are watching the world around you, conflict is foreseeable.

Look at events of all kinds in the US, and attitudes there to war and peace, to not respecting the borders or sovereignty of any other country.
Look at Putin's planes and ships flirting frequently with UK borders.
Look at the proliferation of data centres planned everywhere, using vast amounts of the resources that are needed for living beings - water and power in particular.
Look at conflicts over fuel.
Look at the hackers who turned up all the thermostats in the freezers of a French supermarket.
Look at the evidence of climate instability, of fuel chaos in the transport of food and other essentials
Look at the floods of people displaced from their homes and countries by the upheaval of climatic conditions, of economic instability, of political chicanery, of the brutal drive for expansion in the pursuit of what the Germans called "lebensraum" for the increasing populations of the globe. The displaced are unwanted everywhere by those who fear they will swamp local resources.

greyfur16

*Some others expect "the government" to drive round the doors daily*

I'm sorry I must have missed this?

Not literally, of course, but there have been several posts on the lines that it isn't up to individuals to prepare for disasters, but that the government is responsible for making sure of all that.

fancythat

greyfur16

Some others expect "the government" to drive round the doors daily

I'm sorry I must have missed this?

Does the whole thing frighten you so much?

I don't understand the question.

What is "the whole thing", nobody knows.

Increasingly I try to deal what is infront of me fairly short term.

There are a lot of people who take no responsibility for themselves, and expect the government or other people to bail them out greyfur, they are all over social media. I’m not sure if you’re saying you are one of them, or if you actually already have the basic requirements in place to manage power outages, for example.

I don't read that stuff on SM. I am a responsible citizen and will continue to be just that.

In that case, I don’t understand why you would ask ‘I’m sorry I must have missed this’ - because apart from talking to those we know, social media is where people find out what other people are saying?

How long is short term? Three days? A week? A month? A year?

If we are being advised to have food, water and warmth for three days, then you can be certain that if the unthinkable should happen, it is possible we could be without these essentials for longer than just those three days.

Not everyone would be in a position to obtain and/or store supplies for those three (or more) days, and there would be a need to find them and support them. Doubtless there are plans for that.

But if those who CAN obtain and store enough to keep them going for a few days just go instead into denial and do nothing, they would become an extra weight on those plans.

It is better to prepare for trouble and not meet it than to not prepare and then be taken by surprise when the shit hits the fan.

What is "the whole thing", nobody knows.

Being prepared, as opposed to winging it.

Or is it the future in general, that frightens you?

I had a look at some of your previous answers.
I think I will leave you be.

I agree wholeheartedly with you Elegran .
It’s similar to the Covid “anti-vax’ers” who did not think they would (bother to) have a vaccination, but would have gone to Hospital and expect to be treated if they were very ill with it.

My list of possible "natural" disasters and flashpoints which could cause shortages and outages, in my post at Tue 27-Oct-26 16:59:35 is not from Social Media.
It is from responsible news reports and reliable expert articles and commentaries.

Everything is not rosy in the global garden. When there is trouble in one area, the repercussions are felt all round the world. If each of the leaders of each of the countries make sensible decisions and don't just grab all they can while lashing out at all the others either financially, militarily, or ideologically, we can steer a way forward without destroying each other or ourselves. Will that happen? We do need to be prepared for setbacks.

fancythat

I had a look at some of your previous answers.
I think I will leave you be.

OK? What are you , some sort of on line police force?

And what are you, Greyfur ? some kind of stroppy teenager who wouldn't co-operate with others even if it would save your life?

rosie1959

Perhaps it would be a good idea if the government explained why we should make these preparations exactly what are they suspecting might happen and why. Why should we suddenly have no power or water. Suspect they know more than they are letting on.

Well on the World at One programme, radio 4, that I heard whilst driving today, a man in the know questioned about the Fairford incident (two men going on trial), talked about acts of sabotage being constantly discovered and stopped. He said the expectation was that one day, something big will escape detection and then that will be an act of war which will start things off.

He said the current insider view was that there would be war in Europe in 3 to 5 years. When pressed was this really likely or was it possible, he said he had a young child and he wish it wasn't the case, but looking at all the sabotage, failed attacks and so on, he thought it was likely. It wouldn't be bombs on Whitehall but attacks on infrastructure and airfields, etc.

Pretty terrifying and I have heard so much of this kind of statement now that I don't think it's propaganda.

I hate all this. It reminds me of Covid. The judgement of how people behaved was horrific. I joined in with that nonsense and am ashamed of it.

Maybe it would be appropriate to revive the Civil Defence force.

FigsandGrapes

Maybe it would be appropriate to revive the Civil Defence force.

Good idea. I'd be in favour of that, I think.