Preparedness in the UK - or lack of

Except the ones whose homes have been damaged/destroyed, or those suffering the daily shortages of basic supplies or have their utilities destroyed/disrupted.

Just because lots of people havn't been affected, doesn't mean that no one has!

It's a big country!

Even in Ukraine the vast majority of the country continued their lives with relative normality.

Mumsnet does have a prepper section if anyone is interested:
https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/preppers

I would not be preparing for ww3 at all. It’s not remotely on my radar as something to worry about. Surely you would be concerned about weather way before stockpiling for a world war?

I grew up in a very unstable political climate, regular bombings, shootings, casualties, closures etc and in terms of general day to day things they all remained the same even against that backdrop. People went to work, they got their groceries, they made meals, they cleaned their homes and their clothes, they watched their neighbours get injured or not come home but they cracked on.

I’ve got a camping stove but would suffer without water. I wonder if we could cook pasta in beer?

I'm sure that the people in Ukraine thought the same!

I don't and will not give any head space to this country being attacked and WW3 happening.

Quite. I don’t prepare for flooding because I live nowhere near a flood risk. I do prepare for fire by having and testing smoke alarms.

I will not be preparing for war either. Because there isn’t going to be one. And even if there is a war on the UK - there won’t be - stockpiling tins, candles and batteries isn’t going to help me, my family or anyone else.

That's a common sense, every day approach with fairly common advice that we all follow as a matter of course for known household emergencies like flooding and fire where risks (likelihood and impact) are already relatively high. Be informed - i.e. check weather/ transport. Be prepared - don't travel unless it's necessary, check your insurance cover, buy sandbags, ensure your smoke alarms are working or whatever. It's not putting us on a war footing.

That website has nothing to do with preparation for war.

At the top is text saying:

”Emergencies such as flooding, fires and power cuts can affect us all. There are simple and effective steps you can take to be more prepared.”

One of the three categories of action is ‘Get involved in your community’. I doubt that’s going to be a lot of use if Russian tanks are coming up the street.

Im singing that in my head now!!

The Prepare website was launched in May 2024
https://prepare.campaign.gov.uk/

Has there been one issued to the UK public?

I mean trenches are being dug by Germany/ Poland so I suspect that the UK's assessment of risk is lower, yes.

what is the release of a formal Government preparedness document if it is not the Government telling people to prepare?

In a 'war' situation, which is what this thread is about, bombs don't just suddenly fall out of the sky, which takes the pressure off the imminent need to 'be prepared'. In the event that things ramp up, and the likelihood of any of the things you mention happening changes, I'm sure that people will formally be told to be prepared. Right now it's just not necessary.

I guess I'm a sort of prepper. I live rurally, my nearest supermarket (Aldi) is about 50 minutes drive away. When in Aldi I tend to get enough for at least two or three weeks including store cupboard stuff. I can top up with some limited fresh fruit or veg in the garage shop in the nearest village 10 miles away. We are prone to weather events. We can get snowed in for quite a few days. Power cuts do occur quite often due to the overhead powerlines being damaged during storms. Fallen trees can block the road and can't be moved immediately. As we have no gas supply we are dependent on electricity. We have calor gas and bioethanol heaters and a couple of camping stoves. The electricity is needed for our water pump, so we are setting up a backup system as it's a real pain to have all water off when there's a longish powercut. I have a waterbutt and for drinking/cooking water a life straw as a backup So I do have to ensure we have sufficient food/water for these events as they do happen at times.

Okey dokey. You haven’t said anything about why cyber attack is more likely to be catastrophic in the future than now. You just sort of vaguely think it, I suppose.

The nuking is simply the only realistic threat of attack that Russia has. And it’s so unlikely as to be discountable.

I mentioned election interference because a different poster did. It was just a related point.

Anyway, you’re out.

You can't run a bath if you're not in the house at the time, i.e. at work etc.

If everyone tried to run a bath at the same time, the water pressure wouldn't support it and everyone would just be getting a dribble.

Poisoning a reservoir will mean the water firms have to block the water supply and that's another possibility arising from war or terrorism.

Water is provided under pressure, so needs power to drive the pumps - if there was an electricity outage there'd be no power, so a mere dribble of water - yes they'll have emergency generators, but they won't last for long until the fuel runs out and tend to be unreliable as many are old and may not be regularly/properly serviced.

It's "assumptions" like that which mean lots of people aren't prepared at all, i.e. relying on other people/systems, rather than being responsible for themselves. You really can't just "assume" that clean water will continue to come out of your taps in any kind of national emergency, terrorist attack, war or even mechanical failure.

I'm not agreeing with you, as you stated "If there’s a war our enemies aren’t going to decide that the local water pumping station is a good place to sabotage from a keyboard in Moscow or wherever. They’re going to nuke us."

This is wrong and also contradicted by your later post. In any war there will by cyber attacks (as is happening now) and it's sensible to prepare for them as it's unlikely that any defence is unbreakable. It's much less likely that there will be a nuclear attack and in any event that can't really be prepared for.

I haven't mentioned interference in elections.

Leaving this now as we are going round the houses.

No, of course not, but 3/4 days is the time it takes for the authorities to bring in alternative emergency provisions, i.e. trucks of bottled water, and in the case of an electricity outage, hot food/catering vans. These things never happen immediately, so it makes sense that people can be wholly "self sufficient" for 3/4 days at the minimum.