To think we are being lined up for something?

Everyone has some space somewhere. Top of wardrobe, loft, behind sofa etc etc etc.

Also if you buy 1 extra item when you shop it doesn't cost much. You can get a bag of pasta for under £1.

Rishi defo wants summer holidays off. No skin off his nose.
Rest of it frankly who cares? There was a well rehearsed for a pandemic that they didn't use.

There seems to be genuine real concern about something, what that is exactly remains to be seen (or hopefully not). The prepare website announcement the other day came out of the blue, was it scaremongering before the election news, is it Russia, Brexit supply chaos, the weird behaviour from the sun?

So many possibilities and yet it could also be nothing more than simply being prepared just in case. But the change in supermarkets procedure the OP talks about suggests it’s more real rather than simply increasing resilience.

My guess is either a potential threat of Russian retaliation on British soil or social unrest over the summer with protests getting out of hand.

Anything that’s in the news until election needs to be viewed with a very sceptical eye to put it mildly.
It’s going to be pretty much knives out spouting all sorts of crap to get elected.

Thursday is payday for a lot of people, and traditionally shopping day. If you normallt do your shop on a different day or even time, you will see a difference. It's also bank holiday weekend, which always makes a difference.

Worldwide:
Wars. Ukraine and other hot spots.
Poor weather affecting food supply.
Disease: bird flu jumping across to humans, constant threat of plagues like Ebola (someone told me a rumour it was in Paris)
Volcanic activity in Iceland and Italy with YouTubers talking about supervolcano.

Uk
Re wilding and house building on farmland in the UK putting more pressure on water (supply and sewers), the electric grid and the public services like doctors dentists school roads etc

The electric grid pressure is real. We've had mini power cuts for a year and a half. We have micro generators around the area causing noise nuisance in a serious way. And yet they're building more houses.

1.4m people came over on a visa last year. Any house building labour do won't even touch the sides of this figure. And all the time extra pressure on the systems that keep this a good place to live.

@MsCheeryble, I very much agree. The pandemic made lots of people feel unimportant in comparison to health workers and scientists, so they are making up lie to slander those people.

It makes sense for some people in rural areas with a lot of storage space.

But if you live in a small flat in the city it's hard to keep a big stockpile of food that you're unlikely to eat.

We don't really eat tinned food and we wouldn't freeze copious amounts of milk etc because it wouldn't fit in our freezer.

If we'd stocked up for lockdown we'd be chucking it all out now.

We live in an urban area and through lockdown we never struggled to get what we needed. It's just not necessary to panic buy a big stash of stuff where we live.

this is exactly my feeling. They will use whatever tactics they want, however unfair or sneaky, to attempt to retain power.
Sunaks speech, and rumblings beforehand, are all about defence and war footing. Its exactly designed to scare people into supporting a party thats concentrating on defence spending

I’m actually thinking about WTH are we supposed to do about the vegetable crisis in autumn. No one seems to be talking about it though. The crops have all been fucked and there will be nothing OR what there is will be super expensive

Can't people just rinse some squash or Coke bottles and fill them from the tap if they want to store water or get a cheap reusable camping container

Space to store it? Funds to buy it? Really? You can't think of any reason why someone living hand to mouth in a bedsit or small flat wouldn't stockpile? 🙄

Me and DH have kept a stock of items since we got snowed in for a week just over 40 years ago.

We were living in Kent but not in a remote part but Rainham on a new housing estate.

We have lots of tinned food, pasta, lentils, chickpeas, various beans. We also have plenty of frozen veg, fruit, milk, bread and meals we have made. Also toilet roll, shower gel, shampoo etc.

When we went into lockdown we had no need to go shopping and didn't for over 2 months.

There could be any reason why someone could not get to the shops like floods, snow, illness, broken leg etc. Also with things like flooding they couldn't get food delivered either.

I don't understand either why so many people don't have any stocks whatsoever

It's zombies obviously.

To be honest i'd rather have zombies than another stupid bloody lock down.

As long as they're slow ones.

Well, exactly. Which accounts for what the supermarkets are doing. Not a mysterious dreadful unknown coming down the line.

What research is there that says "Most people" feel this way? If we have zero trust in pharmaceutical companies, how come the vast majority of us got vaccinated, and how come the death and serious illness rate fell so quickly once vaccines came along? How do you account for the fact that we are accepting prescriptions for products made by pharmaceutical companies ever day? If masks are "completely ineffective", how do you account for the fact that HCPs wear them?

I think many are reading far too much into a Gov Comms campaign that was probably instigated as a part of a general preparedness/resilience plan. I'd imagine after the chaos of COVID it's something that's being taken more seriously.

Given the winter is usually the worst time for some of the more predictable issues like bad weather/flood/power cuts/illness, you'd want to get people thinking about it well in advance.

Completely plausible. Tories got wind of Starmer's intention to use the word 'change' to carry his election campaign and are now trying to psych us all out. They're cynically manipulating certain sections of the public into a panic mindset so that they conclude it's better to stick with the abusive, neglectful devil they know 🙄 Gaslighting 101.

Ironically, as far as many of Sunak's MPs are now concerned, it was only when they heard Starmer suddenly touting 'Change!' that they realised Sunak had actually called a General Election...

Business continuity and risk. Standard stuff. The taxing of products coming from Europe might have some bearing on it but I don't think it's anything worth worrying about.

Conspiracy theorists crack on.

Isn’t it because there’s been so much rain the wheat crops are expected to be rubbish this year or something?

😂

@MsCheeryble, we also know brexit border checks are coming.

We knew Covid existed 3-4 months before lockdown, and by late January it was virtually inevitable it was coming here unless we closed the borders. It doesn't take long to print stickers and notices. So what do you or OP suggest is out there that we don't know about? I take it your partner hasn't been doing any unusual printing lately?

I’ve kept my cupboards stocked up for 40 years! Always have toilet rolls/toiletries etc. I don’t hoard stuff, but I always have ‘extra’ I’d definitely manage for 3 weeks days!

My sister worked in ICU, which was filled up during the waves with people dying. Once the vaccine came along, the only people in there were unvaccinated.
My close friend all the way over in North Carolina had the same experience.
Both have retired from ICU since.

Much of what you wrote is untrue.
I am sorry that Covid hurt your feelings by making you feel unimportant. But you should refrain from posting poison.