To be genuinely concerned about the next few years

I was responding to your comment that the government is providing zero guidance, which is incorrect. Whether everyone has the means to access it - the majority of the population will - or simply can't be *rsed to look for it - and the majority won;t - is another matter.

Well they've set up a website giving advice on how to prepare for an emergency - not sure what else you are looking for ?
Get prepared for emergencies - Prepare
I still have the daft leaflet that was posted through everyone's door in the early 1980's telling people what ot do in the event of a nuclear war (paint your windows white and hide under the table, if I recall correctly). see Raymond Briggs' book 'When the Wind Blows' for the more accurate scenario.

@Smoosha i’m not disagreeing, I was disagreeing with the point about zero awareness

But in a lot of cases what good will worrying do you? You can stock up on food for a few months, but if things get so bad there’s literally no food left you’ll still run out. And let’s face it the person with the biggest weapon is who will do best not the person who planned well. You can invest but if there’s a huge crash (or as some seem to think almost an apocalypse) you’ll potentially lose shit loads. You can buy a house but if there’s a property crash or you get ill you could lose the house and everything it was worth.

I used to have a friend who tried to plan for all sorts of issues. She was so frugal in life because she was panicked there wouldn’t be a pension in old age and she thought property prices would crash so she’d gave absolutely no money in old age. She saved and invested every spare penny. She died at 49 of cancer. She had never had kids or got married so I think her brother got all the money and likely spent it.

Quite honestly if I worried about everything that goes on in the world I’d make myself ill. So yes, in all honesty I’ll worry about something when it’s at my door (or getting close to it). I cannot plan for every single eventuality without giving up actual life right now. You need to live as well as plan. Tomorrow is never guaranteed.

I think a lot of people have zero awareness of what is actually going on in the world.

I think many just get on with it & don’t think about the shit until it’s at their door.

Bay of Pigs anyone?

Meanwhile in the UK, Rachel is raking it in with the higher VAT revenue from higher petrol prices and still sticking to her plan to raise fuel duty later this year.

No sign of Starmer nor Reeves reducing VAT to help the beleaguered hospitality industry unlike other countries who have a lower VAT rate for the sector.

My prepping is the normal winter measures - cartons of UHT milk, a 16kg sack of flour and enough dried yeast to last a couple of months. I have 7 days meat/fish/greens in the freezer, dry goods in the cupboard and a few pots of home made jam.

I've planted the veggie bed with beans, leeks, salads, and stocked the greenhouse with tomato, courgette, cucumber and chilli plants.

It won't feed us for long, but it's all I have room for.

I find these threads quite fascinating. I’m prone panicking and worrying about things but I have noticed that the pure fear from people on here does not reflect real life. I work with the public, I treat patients all day, from all walks of life and backgrounds and all ages etc. People come in discussing their holidays they’re planning. They talk about their kids and what they’ve done for Easter and what university their kids are at and what jobs they are starting. I have people telling me they are retiring soon and have lots of holidays planned. People tell me about new jobs and moving house. Occasionally I get the “bloody petrol prices” being thrown in there but that’s it.

I also do an expensive hobby occasionally. There are still people throwing hundreds or thousands at it every day on the forums I read about it. No one mentions the fact that in a few years we’ll be living in some apocalyptic world.

I remember during Covid though and people on here saying things would never go back to normal. That big events would be over forever. Never again would anyone attend a concert or get crammed into a train. Handshakes would never happen anymore. But here we are. I’ve got 3 huge arena and stadium concerts booked over the summer. And I’ll likely be wedged under someone’s gross armpit on the tube to get there.

So while I agree we might be in for a few tougher years than we’re used to, I’d be very surprised if we really are going to have totally empty supermarket shelves and zero petrol or alternative ways to travel.

I live in Spain and I actually like our PM - I'd much rather have him than Starmer! Weirdly I've become more left wing with age. I'm impressed by how quickly he acted to reduce VAT and taxes on utilities and fuel. Fuel prices are still higher but manageable. Food prices are high here anyway as I'm on a tiny island (Mallorca).

Also him telling Trump to do one over the war filled me with joy. I wish more European leaders would be so brave.

"vote for politicans who have a cohesive plan for improving/saving the economy"

Is there one?

We should all have an emergency supply of food to see us through a 7-10 day window. Even the government recommend we do.

I keep a stock of long term shelf stable food. Dried mash, tinned veg, corned beef, hot dogs, tinned ham, tuna, pasta and tinned toms/passata, dried milk, cordial, tinned fruit, oats , dried fruit, flour, dried lentils, split peas, chick peas. And plenty of herbs and spices . Plus my cupboards are always full and so is my freezer. I have a camping stove and 8 tins of gas. A bbq with a big bag of Charcoal. A water butt and a reverse osmosis unit (I keep fish). Tons of candles. If the shops all vanished off the face of the earth I’d be perfectly fine for maybe 3-4 weeks. Then I’d be ok but eating some weird mixes for another 2-4 months as I’ve also got a greenhouse and it’s currently full of seedlings. I’ve got fruit plants and bushes…. Cherries, apples, blueberries, blackberries and a few staggered lines of carrots. I know hope to preserve food. I make my own sourdough. I’d quite enjoy it as a challenge.

https://www.theguardian.com/food/2026/apr/04/foods-to-stockpile-emergency-store Some more info here on things to prep. Other countries' governments seem to be giving more guidance than ours is.

It's not that we're suddenly going to get nuked (and if we were, prepping won't help) but there are and always have been risks such a shocks to food, energy and water supply that it's sensible to prepare for. At the very least you should have water for a few days, long life food that you can eat uncooked (tinned beans etc), a way to light your house and charge your phone, and don't let any regular prescription meds run down to nothing.

I'm also in my sixties and was at university when Reagan was inaugarated as President of the USA at the height of the Cold War - we had an 'End Of the World Party' ' on the day - the poster was a spoof of Gone With the Wind with Reagan and Thatcher, with the byeline - 'she promised to follow him to the end of the earth - he promised to take her there'.

I was also alive but too young to remember the Cuban missile crisis, but I think that's still the closest the world's ever been to a full-scale nuclear war (apart from the time there was a false alarm which a Russian bravely chose to ignore)

If you are going to be increasing your mortgage and it leaves you with little buffer for other increases, then I probably wouldn’t at the moment - but that’s my opinion. I’m sure others will come ahead and tell you to go ahead but I’d rather have the extra money just in case and see what happens over the next few months.

I’m a similar age to you two. It’s far, far worse now. We were concerned about nuclear war and I remember the Aldermaston marches. I was alive at the time of the Cuban crisis but not old enough to understand or remember. Those crises were about threats and people were genuinely scared of what those threats meant for our lives. People, some people, were worried about the environment but were dismissed and derided as yoghurt weaving, sandal wearing tree huggers.

Unfortunately those threats and fears have become reality, in many cases they’re much worse than was predicted and it’s happening faster. The difference now is that the world wide capacity for self destruction has increased enormously and disaster is actually happening. I had not anticipated that vested interests would actively work to suppress and oppose actions to address the problems. That’s why it’s worse.

Forecourt prices have gone up yes, but @YellowDuck1obviously doesn't remember September 2000 when domestic protests caused forecourts to run dry up and down the country.

I don’t blame you. I’ve had to limit my news to a certain extent which is why I’m stupid for clicking on this thread. I think we need to be realistic but need to draw the line at the scaremongering - problem is knowing which is which.