To think we are being lined up for something?

Are you one of those gagging for Labour as they are the best and more competent? . Well they should be able to take us through to another pandemic, attacks, war. Stop blaming the tories for everything. Very soon you won’t have any excuses. There is one thing to criticise the opposition and another one to manage the country.

I went to Tesco yesterday (large Tesco Superstore that was built 30 years ago). when it was first built it was always really busy because thousands of new houses were being built. As the years have gone on the place always seemed quiet as more and more people were getting their shopping delivered or at least doing click and collect. Tesco sold off half their car park to McDonalds who built on it and it is always busy. I don't go to Tesco very often and when I do it always made me feel sad (compared to the 'olden' days as it was very quiet and lacking in physical customers). A bit of a 'ghost town' feeling to it. Yesterday I did a big shop in person just cos I had an unexpected spare couple of hours. The place had the feel of everybody getting in each others way. Like it felt quite busy. I didn't have any trouble getting milk or toilet rolls or bottled water but I was surprised at the number of people there. They also seemed to have alot of the checkouts manned by people like they were expecting a huge rush. When I have been in before their is lots of self service checkouts and usually only a few tills that are manned. Yesterday though the checkouts seemed to be more manned than usual.

Anyway I could be adding 2 and 2 and getting 5 but just thought I'd throw that into the pot.

We should be fine.
I've checked with dh and he's done no emergency training recently.
He did a scenario of bombs in London just before the tube bombing, a flooding one just before there was major flooding and pandemic training in 2019....

You think COVID didn't happen??

Andrew Bridgen! 🙄

This.

The election has been called for the summer because the tories want to avoid another shit winter of overwhelmed nhs, unaffordable bills, rise in homelessness being reported as kids with “no home for Christmas”, and flooding etc. All those things will still be true in the summer but less visible, less obviously tragic and less severe - it’s not so bad if you can’t afford to hear your home in summer. People are generally more enthusiastic in summer, ans they aren’t gearing up to pay their tax bill in Jan if they are self employed.

Added to that, I checked the election timing in relation to the Euros. They will happen just before the first play offs. England is favourite so should definitely make it out of group so there’ll be a wave of patriotism and positivity flowing and a football-dominated news cycle masking the brexit food shortages and war news.

it’s cynical as fuck but that’s politics and the tories for you.

People were compliant because it was unprecedented. Now we have been through a crisis/pandemic and we know that a lot of the things we did were pointless and we know that a lot of people (including those in power) didn't make the same sacrifices. We also know (those who came through unscathed) that 'nothing bad happened' and on a human psychology level that means we are more likely to take greater risks if a similar situation happens again. Compliance levels during Covid don't indicate that compliance levels would be similar in another crisis.

You know how bad the harvests have been globally because of the weather, right? That on its own could account for it. We must have been living on stored food for a while now

Oh. But climate change is a myth.

We're all going to have to adjust our expectations.

Films like Leave the World Behind with Julia Roberts kind of makes me suspicious with some sort of blackout. Better stock up my bunker 😂

Talking to DH yesterday about this and he said we’re fine, we’ve got tins. And I said, no, aren’t you more concerned about what the threat is?

anyeay I’m not worried as there’s nothing 8 can do. But I think there is something.

This "three day supply" statement is honestly nothing at all to worry about🙃it's a good thing to have a bit of a buffer or back-up plan for all sorts of situations. Like if there's a bad winter and you can't get to the shops because of the snow, or the lorries can't get to the shops to stock them up. Maybe even one of those ridiculous life events that we all say "I swear this kind of thing only happens to me" happens, like you lose your bank card and can't pay for anything till the bank opens on Monday, or you trip over your shoelace and sprain your ankle on the way to ASDA.. It's just sound advice, not a sign of impending doom.

I do worry for this year’s crops. The constant rain and lack of sunshine has certainly not done my little veg garden any good. I imagine farmers are concerned about the harvest by now.

Perfect time to increase the barriers for food imports 🙄

In today's world it doesn't need to be war or pandemics that can bring things to a standstill. Major cyber attacks are a real and constant threat, and can stop communication, banking and finance, food distribution, healthcare, water and electricity supply. Almost everything really, since we depend on technology for everything now. I suppose there's no harm in being prepared with a few days' worth of water, food, and cash.

Yes, we're being prepared for WW3, to make us think this is all natural rather than contrived and planned.

Before every major war there is a financial crisis, so they will starve us all first.

Britain doesn't have enough land to feed it's population, and are happily plastering over what remains of our arable land with vile new build houses. A lot of land is already wasted on livestock, who only convert a fraction of what they eat into food.

Everyone is talking about water and tinned food and loo roll but the question should really be will the supermarkets have enough tinfoil? I need to make my hat for Ascot and I just don’t know I’ll have enough tinfoil!

@wateringcanface that is a very sensible comment but I just had to make a joke about hats. Sorry.

I think some would and a lot wouldn’t. All in all I think there would be a lot less compliance this time round, so let’s hope we don’t get anything really bad doing the rounds.

I don't agree actually that people will be less accepting of infection control measures than they were in 2020. I was amazed at how much people accepted changes in 2020, and were willing to try and do their bit to get through the crisis. There are still a few people round here who wear masks when out shopping now; I think many people would try and do the responsible thing/ follow Government advice if we had another pandemic.

Sunak called the election now so he is in time to sign his kids up to school in California in time for September.

People who voted for Brexit...What were they hoping for?

It has made life for more expensive...With more illegal Migrants than ever, and no more money for the NHS..that was all lies.

This happened in Feb 2020 as well.

General crapness, inefficiency and other supply line issues (wars, cyber attacks) are just as likely to cause shortages as a pandemic or nuclear attack. But ... the bird flu pandemic is migrating to humans more often. Reading about it a few weeks ago, I did wonder if another shitshow was on the way. I haven't kept up to speed with it like I did with Covid, though (or the new SARS-like pathogen, as it was being called then.)

PPs' point about mounting staff illness is a good one, too. Combine that with all the failures to prepare for Brexit, loss of imports from Ukraine & Russia and other spanners in the works, and I guess we no longer need a big event to fuck everything up 😕

Possibly , BUT there are increasingly worrying earthquakes occurring in Italy....last huge one there 40 thousand years ago altered the worlds climate bigtime so way overdue now.., China appears to be prepping it's military, and the Putin saga is escalating, on top of increasing sunspot activity, they've understated how strong and for how long for that one. Personally, I'm not at all sure I'd want Sunak in charge in a big disaster, and apparently he doesn't wish to be either

Link to Gov page here