To think we are being lined up for something?

Personally I think it's probably pure selfishness on Rishi's part. He has a job offer somewhere else. Or he doesn't want the embarrassment of a vote of no confidence. Or he doesn't want to keep working at what is clearly going to be a failed project (winning the next election) and he's giving up.

I do think it's possible there's something on the horizon that the Tories would rather not have to deal with - but it seems that Rishi's move to call the election has been unpopular within the wider party. That's what makes me think it's probably self interest. Current Tories crop are such a bunch of weasels they're not even loyal to party let alone country.

I'd like to think Prepare etc is a response to the increasing risks posed by climate change (as well as conflict). We may have droughts / floods / storms / failed crops etc this year and that's going to increase year on year. We are more vulnerable to these effects outside of the EU. I think it's likely any of the majority political parties in power would be working on preparedness / resilience, even the useless Tories.

3 days food and water is sensible though, plenty of small infrastructure issues could happen and it would get you over the worst of it before emergency response gets set up.

I think it's far more likely the adaptations are to improve resilience Vs hold up at Dover / France over the summer again.

If there's some kind of background Intel behind all of this, I really wish they'd piss or get off the pot.

@marie3e
They've made a website 'Prepare'

prepare.campaign.gov.uk/get-prepared-for-emergencies/

I only found out about it from someone's Twitter.

Yes I heard the advice to keep plenty of food etc in the house randomly on the radio the other day too

What kind of announcement, where ?

It's the issues with the ports since Brexit. Now we are actually checking what is coming in we will have delays and disruption and added costs we have avoided up to now, but they can't procrastinate any more.

Also Rishi has been denying access to the UN food inspector https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/food-poverty-sunak-un-children-b2542136.html

It's random stocking up that messes up the supply chain 🤨

What exactly does being on a war footing mean these days though?

I agree, something feels odd, felt it all week.

It’s not the costs being such a new thing but the actual checks that they’ve pushed back for years to actually start, presumably in the hope people wont associate it with the massive mess up that is brexit and the Tories.

Imagine a country actually voting to implement costs, delays and harder work and more paperwork for itself.

Oh no !!!!!

Everyone rush out and buy bog rolls quick.

You acknowledge how useless and incompetent our politicians are - and then you credit them with some marvellous foresight and ability to make wise plans. They don't know anything.

Being on a war footing is probably reasonable with Putin making another push in to Ukraine. Another pandemic isn't too far fetched, though very hard to predict. Resilience has probably been overlooked in the past so we should be paying more heed to it. We seem to have had lots of big IT failures over past weeks - that's another area where we need to make better plans for unexpected failure.

Well I wouldn't worry about it, something is alway around the corner.

Well the government did actually do a weird announcement yesterday morning about stockpiling 3 days food and water and other things ‘just in case’. It was then of course completely overshadowed by the election being called.

This. It’s all they’ve got left, may as well give that a go.

It might be something to do with Oliver Dowden's website, recommending every household should have at least 3 weeks' supply of non- perishable food, bottled water, torches etc as emergency backup for any future pandemics/floods/other disasters. I heard about it yesterday but then it was overshadowed rather by Rishi in the Rain.

OP I'm kind of with you. It does feel like we're being primed for something. But what? Could be any number of things affecting global supply chains / infrastructures. Cyber disruption? Suppose all we can do is hope for the best and prepare for the worst.

Some of the regulatory divergence between EU and UK looses its transitional period over the next months so the supply chain between EU and UK is more complex. This is to keep things moving whilst all the paperwork and process is established. Just sensible management of an evolving situation. Of maybe the ET space ships are only 4 weeks away. That's probably the reason, thinking about it in more detail.

It's probably down to the secondary petri dish conditions of people using those sardine cans (aeroplanes) to go on holiday. Covid is rife, cases of measles, whooping cough and TB are on the rise. All this means factories will have less workers, truckers won't be driving etc etc.

Then you have the French blocking the ports or air traffic control on strike every summer as they try to convince their government of something so nothing will be coming across from Europe. Pensions, farmers, petrol...

So no conspiracies - just another usual shit summer for us all - and that's before we moan about the non stop rain

Well my partner works in print and I knew about the social distancing stickers the supermarkets were ordering waaay before they stuck them on the floor. Honestly, where do people thinks they appeared from?

YANBU @BeverForget. Supermarkets are not going to order double for no reason. Is this all supermarkets? Or one in particular?

Perhaps they're anticipating stockpiling behaviour because of the current government's fear-mongering in the press this week. Which presumably is part of their campaign plan. I.e. frighten everyone into voting for "consistency".

There was a thread on Reddit earlier, it was an interview that Andrew Bridgden MP has done. I couldn't watch the video but the gist of the comments were talking about the Russia/Ukraine war really ramping up after the election. I'll have to watch it later but maybe it could be relating to the op.