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.

Stock up on extra medicine too if you can.
The lists on the pdf I posted are quite useful.

Yes good point

As for solar panels etc what do I need for this? Do you mean for on the roof? How would that help if the power gets cut anyway? Sorry I don’t understand this bit but am v interested.

We are highly unlikely to have Russians landing on the beaches. We are very likely to have cyber attacks on banking and infrastructure and the fall out from disruption in other areas of the world such as food import issues. We have these attacks regularly and they are stopped but at some point they will get through.

We need to be as resilient as we possibly can be and those who just mock or say "nope" are irresponsible IMO.

Most solar panel systems don't work in a power cut, even if you have a battery. they need to be set up in particular way to continue working (so that they can be completely isolated from the grid). However having solar and a battery helps us as a country to be less reliant on importing energy from overseas.

He said if a nuclear bomb drops it will be at least 3 months before you can enter the environment because of the radiation so needs to put the hours in now

I had a falling out with my partner over this recently lol, I swear men accept the concept of war way too quickly for my liking.

I refuse to just shrug and accept it. It’s not acceptable, shouldn’t be acceptable.

I am going to lead the Resistance. I've got the trench coat, and I'm deciding on my code name.

This ignores the reality of the fact nations like Russia and despots like Putin exist.

You can be as pacifist, isolationalist, dove-like, and anti-war as you like, put all the pressure possible on your leaders to follow suit, but if someone decides they are picking a fight with you no matter what, it's all rather immaterial and by sticking your head in the sand about it all you do is set yourself up as easy pickings.

The only reason Ukraine did not completely collapse in 2022 is they learned the lesson of Russian aggression in 2014 and prepared for a resumption of it.

If there is a lesson we should be "learning from our grandparents", it's that there comes a point in time where open and free democracies have to strap their big pants on and dish out a kicking to the despots of the world, otherwise the despots will have no compunction in doing the same to you, only if you leave it to that point there isn't going to be an open and free democracy to enjoy in the aftermath.

War sucks, but to coin a phrase "freedom isn't free", and if someone is threatening to take yours away then you are just making that easier for them by pretending it isn't happening. If you want to enjoy all the benefits of living in an open, free, prosperous society, then unfortunately that comes with the requirement that you must be prepared to step up and fight for it when someone wants to take it away.

Have a 10kg bag of rice from the Asian grocery shop, does that count? Honestly no, stop worrying yourself

We need to be as resilient as we possibly can be and those who just mock or say "nope" are irresponsible IMO

Indeed.

The idea the UK is insulated from this by geography is myopic.

Putin has miscalculated in Ukraine, but it's only because of concerted efforts from nations other than Ukraine itself that conflict is still a going concern. Putin also has similar designs on the Baltics, the simple fact they are NATO members will not give him pause for thought, because whether it's in 5 years or 10 years from now, nobody is getting into a hot war with Russia over an annexation of Estonia or similar.

What needs to be understood is that it's one thing to say "oh, but we've got a ton of EU countries between ourselves and Putin", but despots like Putin don't just simply pick one or two nations off and then leave it at that. Once he's taken the Baltics, this further erodes NATO coherence, the resources of the Baltics then become an asset of the Russian "empire", next up it's Finland, and so on and so on, until such point Russia is literally on your doorstep.

This is why the only remotely sensible approach to this problem of war-mongering despots is to destroy them before they get going, otherwise you are just putting off an inevitable confrontation in any case, only if it's delayed then you are going to be in an even worse position and less able to resist as and when the time comes.

Yes, this unfortunately means conflict and death, but until such time we live on a planet devoid of any sort of despotism and demagoguery, there isn't any viable solution to this problem other than the use of military force. You can't reason with people who are not reasonable themselves and will not adhere to any negotiated solution in any case. Ask Ukraine.

So many seem to think it’s about old fashioned war. It might be, but cyber attacks are more likely and bad enough.

What if you can’t get medicine, pay for food or no water in your taps. No internet. Small things will become really big things. Just imagine one of those scenarios and think about what you would do if noone will be able to instantly just fix it for you.

Thanks all some excellent ideas. I think i will stock up a little, plant some stuff,gwt a wibd up radio. We have lots of camp stuff,cash in house etc.

Lots of people mocked my Brexit stockpile. Then when covid hit and I didn't need to go to the supermarket until all the silliness had died down they were all very jealous of my supplies

I went to the supermarket as normal during Covid, never had a problem. In fact, I found the community spirit quite nice and enjoyed comparing face masks with people (I had various colourful ones). The British love a good crisis

DW doesn't want me to do anything and things its panic inducing hysteria from MN. So I've added a few things to the garage bit by bit 😃wind up radio, bottles of water, candles. I am going to try and stockpile some cash and also tinned food. We have a big gas bbq.

That’s undoubtedly comprehensive. I like particularly the wee section on how to talk to children

Having a battery radio, batteries
Power bank,
A well stocked cupboard of food (eat cold, add hot water, heat up on stove/microwave as well as your bog standard usual food)
Lanterns, torch
Copies of documents (email, paper)
Paper copies of phone numbers.
Medicines (prescription and OTC)
First aid kit
Water/drinks
A way of heating food. (BBQ, or camping stove)
Spare cash and change
Pet food,
Kids supplies like nappies etc.

Look at the government preparedness pages.

These are good for all sorts of local and personal disasters or difficulties.(Illnesses, weather, power cuts)

The more of us that have got a back up plan the better.

We have also done this. DH is away at the moment but has left me with instructions for what to do if it all goes wrong. The Guardian had a very good article here recently. https://www.theguardian.com/food/2026/apr/04/foods-to-stockpile-emergency-store

You don't need as much space as you imagine. A couple of bottles of water or pop or fruit juice, milk enough to tide you over for 24 hours until the utilities support kicks in. You need very little to wash hands with. Water purification tablets are small and cheap. (Need a source of water nearby though. Not so easy in the city)

If you've got space in the bottom of the wardrobe for a couple of packs of 8 litres or under the bed?

This!

Tinned food doesn’t really go
out of date. If the tin isn’t damaged the food in it will keep for years beyond the best before date, especially vegetables and pulses.

I find it interesting how many people are sneery and condescending when this sort of thing is spoken about. Its like its some sort of badge of honour to never have anything in your house and to have to shop separately for every meal or to declare that you can't cook and so you eat ready meals and takeaway all the time.

I wonder where it's come from since you would think, particularly on a site aimed at mothers/parents, that the natural tendency would be to be prepared for things which might impact negatively on your family.

Anyway shortages over the summer are headline news this morning..

One of my new chickens has laid her first egg this morning. Not sure which one. The existing girls are not best pleased at the arrival of newcomers but with eight eggs a day between February and October, we have a good protein source.

Tomato plants are also doing well on the window sill and I've just harvested yet another bumper crop of rhubarb.

Packing the DC back off to uni with a few extra tins/rice/pasta/vitamins to keep under their beds just in case.

Good for you! Well, tell him hysteria is when people rush to supermarkets in a blind panic, pull loads of stuff of the shelves then when they get home find most of it is foods they dislike or have no idea what to do with. What preppers do is careful stashing away of small amounts over a long time, planning of exactly what's needed so nothing goes to waste. What I find on MN is mainly denial that we are at risk!

agree with this. I'd be a bit careful of tinned evaporated milk and tomato soup has a habit of exploding if you keep it too long but things like beans, sweetcorn, tinned tomatoes, ratatouille, fruit etc will last for years. Likewise jars of preserves that haven't been opened.

Things like honey will literally be fine decades after the BBE date.