Should we be doing anything practical to prepare for war?

[Jinglejinglejingle7]

Should we be doing anything to prep for war? Not sure we can do much? But scared as a country we are so unprepared.

Have you any idea how much water five days supply of water is? It is not insignificant.

I mean we always keep a very 2l bottles in because .... Thames Water. That will have to do

Five days of essential drinking water is very different from five days worth of all water used. And yes I have an idea of how much that is (about a litre and a half per person per day).

Nobody is forcing you to do it but its the government recommendation to have this for at least a 72 hour emergency period.

Send your child to a school they can walk to in case of fuel shortages. ;)

As a country we absolutely must be doing more to prepare for war. Not having top military personnel debate women’s rights in military but focusing on actual plans as sadly we are so late to the game as the Middle East position has proven. It’s a joke, an embarrassment, and we need to protect all branches of military.

As others have said, have 72 hours worth of food, water and essential medications. This is for any disruption to the system, not just war. Have batteries, power banks, candles etc. in stock. Camping stove is good too but only if you have somewhere outside to use it - not much use in a flat without a balcony. Always have some cash and more than one bank account in case of cyber attacks on banks preventing you using your card for that particular bank.

I have been. My food due to several of my organs is very very complicated. And I learnt very quickly in covid people who are not even gluten free were buying gluten free food just in case. And leaving none for people who actually needed it. Learnt my lesson.
so I went and got stocked up on my food and will keep at least five of everything I need in the cupboard in case of a shortage.

I will not go hungry again because of ignorant and greedy people.

so for anyone who did this in Covid. Don’t ever do it again. While ur gluten free food is gross and probably got thrown away I had no food.

I have the Anker version. Half because I wanted decent portable power in my campervan - and half as a backup for any potential powercuts which I feel are the most likely threat. Also bought a woodburner again as recently moved and left the old one in previous home, so have gas, electric, wood to power me. Have portable camping stove and wind up radio. Learning to grow my own food. May purchase some chickens. Have basic long life food and need to source a water butt. When attempting to get my kids (both early 20's-in first homes with partners now) to show the slightest bit of interest, they just laugh at me...
Anyone any ideas on long life dog food? Until my gardening skills improve, we may have to live on lettuce, herbs and potatoes!

This is as far as I've got.

If something is going to happen then no telling how long it will last or how long any stores of tins etc is going to sustain you. However, learning how to be a bit self sufficient interests me anyway and those skills could also have the benefit of being useful if we did hit rationing again. So have been trying to learn/experiment with composting, growing my own veg, harvesting my own seeds for next year's crops, foraging locally and even things like filtering water. It's not that I'm really anxious that I'd ever really need to filter water, but if I find it interesting anyway then the pros of having the information cant hurt!

Also things like being able to maintain my push bike by myself, so I have a cheap and free form of transport is already paying dividends given the current cost of fuel.

@Sweetbeansandmochi where do you keep 5 days worth water out of interest? I'm aware in an emergency beggars can't be choosers but I find the taste of water that's sat in plastic turns my stomach. So if there was an alternative I'd go for it!

I had some tinned food too, just checked all out of date now :(

@Needhelp101the cricket bat? Please explain as IDK!!!

I just have 12 liters in the shed. That’s just to drink not to flush the loo or wash with.

Hope this helps! Great film, btw.

It’s good (for any eventuality) to have an emergency supply of batteries, torch, first aid kit, bottled water, some tins etc.

But I’d war comes to our shores we are probably fucked.

@lemoncurdcupcake - glass bottles?
we have a sparkling water machine for daily use, but I have a crate of 12 sparkling in glass. It’s mainly as back up for bbqs or birthdays when I can’t be bothered constantly refilling and re sparkling water when lots of people over. But in the meantime it’s back up by default. We also have a crate with some apple juice, mango, etc in for same reason. It all lasts around a year usually, so I just top as and when it’s used. It’s used more in summer when hot. Each bottle is 1litre. So that’s around 24 litres if crate full ( we return empty glass bottles here at supermarket for pfand - money return)

I also keep a couple of uht milk for back up also, ie fussy Ds would eat weetabix fine in no power situation.

Beer also counts as liquid in emergency right?

Tinned food dosent really go out of date. It may have a best before date but can generally be eaten for years after. As long as the tins are not blown it will be fine. Why buy it though and leave it without touching but for so long. Surely proper prep would be to use the items and replace regularly.

For someone who's guilty of overthinking pretty much every given situation, I'm curiously underthinking this one.

It’s weird how so many people in the UK don’t think they need to take responsibility for themselves or other people. Where I am it’s expected of us to be able to cope, and also to help neighbours/friends, by ourselves if something happens. Doesn’t need to be war.

This file has good advice OP. It’s a brochure sent out to all households.

rib.msb.se/filer/pdf/30874.pdf

I prepped for Brexit then Covid (was glad I did during the latter!) and now for whatever might be coming. I put clear date labels on all my tins otherwise can be hard to see those that are getting near BBE dates. I've got around 12 litres of water currently. Also have a Life Straw which means I can drink water from any source, like a river, and it'll filter out all the unwanted stuff.

Also got batteries, power bank, wind up radio, torches, candles, medicines, etc.

I can grow microgreens on the windowsill for some added fresh nutrients, quite fun to do!

@Andtheworldwentwhite I remember that people bought GF foods during Covid, I have to be GF so most of my stocks are GF as I know that'll be harder to get. DP can eat it too so not a problem. It really is quite selfish of them but if panic buying happens people will grab anything.

Realistically, the most likely impact will be high fuel prices and shortages. If you’re in a position to install a solar panel or heat pump, now would be a really good time. And holiday flights might be cancelled. Flight free holidays seem a lower risk at the moment as well as being good for the planet. Or at least make sure you’ve got good insurance!

Wow just read through that - the Swedes don't pull their punches, do they!

"From the year you turn 16 until the end of the year you turn 70, you are part of Sweden’s total defence and required to serve in the event of war or the threat of war."

Being 70 myself, that's quite eye-opening! I do like the way the responsibility falls on everyone, though. Can't image how we Brits would react to that dropping through our doors!

Solar generator is an essential. They're great.

Different society altogether I think. But yeah, it’s very much working together and not just think about yourself.

If something does happen, we’ve all had very clear instructions including easy lists to follow, so noone can say they weren’t prepared (like the people on this thread going ’nope’).

The biggest thing that matters is who is in government. So follow closely what party leaders are saying about this and vote accordingly when you have opportunity.
Personally I prefer Keir Starmer's approach to that of Farage or Badenoch, for example. If a particular party's approach resonates with you consider getting involved in actively supporting them.
On a practical level I am keeping about a week's worth of food in stock (rotating so it doesn't go out of date - things we will eat anyway) and we're planting a few seeds this spring.
I can't store a lot of water but have bought some water purifying tablets, have a water butt outside and have bought a few 2l bottles of still water to keep in storage.
I have bought a wind up radio, am keeping a stock of batteries and have a camping stove and some gas.
Other than that I am not really going to worry about it, it's beyond my control.
I am careful to try not to catch or spread viruses too so that may be something you wish to consider if you don't do anything about that currently - if things do kick off you won't want to be catching anything and it will be important to reduce pressure on health services. So maybe get some FFP2 masks in stock too. I have those anyway as I can't afford to keep getting ill.

@ShakyBake can I ask what this means please and what's the point of increasing nights in it ?

I'm sure I read once in Germany they always encourage citizens to have a few weeks supplies to hand for anything ?

However I'm not sure what we would need here.

If say Russia attacked us they need to get past loads of eu countries first. So that's a buffer but if they send missiles we have nothing to protect us like an iron dome ?
So we can't stop them and if they carry on with their shops and subs in our waters again we don't seem to have much to repel them with.
We have one and half days of ammo

So perhaps the best prep would be to start learning Russian and getting a boat so we can escape to sea somewhere ?

Oh yes we did buy a camping stove actually so that's something