HM Gov telling us to get tinned food and bottled water?

[DecisionTime123]

Call me old fashioned, but isn't this sort of thing likely to provoke a run on toilet rolls? Couldnt find any other threads on it, but I think there is a "preppers" topic on here somewhere. In any case, what do you think? I'm sort of concerned, should I be? Or has this gone under the radar?

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/aug/25/uk-to-warn-citizens-to-stock-up-on-food-amid-threat-from-climate-crisis-and-hostile-states

This is quite normal, and not new advice even for the UK. Russia, who were targeting us long before their current adventures in Ukraine btw, want to attack our infrastructure given that they're not going to be able to confront us in traditional military ways. This combined with various other risks means it's a good idea for those who are able to have some things in. That way, if Russia do manage to fuck up the power supplies for a few days or whatever, emergency supplies can be concentrated on the people who really couldn't sort a buffer out.

We always keep at least 4 of the largest bottles of water in the house now as in the last 2 months the villages has had 4 major water leaks leaving most of it with no water for up to 13 hours.

It’s quite a privileged thing to have the resources to be able to be stocked up on an abundance of food though. There was a time in my life when I only had dry Weetabix to eat for a few days - and there were no emergencies happening that week.

Interesting, I'd have said the privilege was in not having to worry about any of this! I come from a family who weren't well off and people around us were usually keen to make sure they had a buffer in. Partially to try and make the most of offers, but also it was part of the protection strategy both for emergencies and just if the month outlasted the money. The packets and tins would still be there regardless.

Obviously if you're on the absolute bones of your arse, you can neither buy ahead of time nor do the thing where people can't possibly prep because they want exactly what they want when they want it and don't really like packet food. But anecdotally I would've associated it with living precariously.

I wonder how HM Govt expect to people do this when many a) can barely feed themselves and pay their bills let alone stockpile and mange stock control (as the end of the world hasn't an end date) and b) have nowhere to store it due unsuitable housing (as in having the smallest homes in Europe).

If they're going to publish statements like that they should also publish a practical plan of how to do this that most people could follow.

@AgnesX in Germany many houses automatically use the loft is build into the loft and basements.
They seem small outside but the houses are large in the inside.

We don't have a garage or accesble shed .

Many properties in the UK don't have an attic or a basement unfortunately. Funnily, I was also thinking of Germany who I remember being more organised when we were years ago. It is something building companies could start to do though.

I live in a block of flats and space is definitely limited.

I swear i read this exact thread laat year. And the year before.🙈 They run these articles every end of summer, don't they? Before the storm season

I didn’t stock pile a single thing and still managed to buy everything we needed to home school for lock down. Didn’t have a problem getting anything including food.

You’re talking absolute nonsense.

God I hate this useless government. Can’t wait to see the back of them.

No need for alarm. It's perfectly normal to conduct risk assessments and have disaster continuety/recovery plans in place if you're running any sort of operation. We have one at work. If you note, threats from hostile nations are only one risk amongst several including weather related ones.
Knowing droughts, floods, power outages, IT issues, diseases and hostile threats could occur and offering sensible advice so people can cope without straining other services isn't the same as saying these things are imminent.

God I hope it doesn’t come to needing to live off tinned food, my IBS is already bad enough.

It sounds mad, but I know two families who are moving with their kids to Scotland to try and outrun rising temps. First world climate migrants are already starting!

I think it’s actually because we are lucky enough not experience significant adverse events like power / water outages, war etc.

seems fairly obvious those with limited experience wouldn’t be worried all the time about something that hasn’t happened in their lifetime.

I'm a low-key prepper. I grew up very rurally so it was normal to have some back up stores in case of bad weather/power cuts. I've kept that up as an adult even though I live in a town.

I could probably keep my family of four fed and watered for a week if the shit really hit the fan but I don't buy anything we won't normally use as I don't want anything going off. The PP upthread panic buying food and then throwing it out is absolutely madness!

I have a set of shelves in the garage where everything goes. Tinned beans and pulses, chopped tomatoes, microwave rice, tins of tuna, a few packs of toilet roll, loads of cans of tonic water as I like a G&T anyway and cartons of long life milk which we could drink if the water went off but otherwise we use in porridge throughout the colder months. I just operate a use and replace system so nothing ever goes off and it's constantly rotated. It came in very useful during lockdown and also last year when DH and I both had flu at the same time and were too ill to get to the supermarket. It doesn't mean you're preparing for nuclear war.

We have some camping supplies anyway.....gas cooker, sleeping bags, wind up torches and a life straw for drinking water "in the wild." We use candles in the autumn/winter anyway so I always have stocks of them and matches.

The UK advice has been to have enough in stock to cover you for a few days for ages now but many people still seem to take the piss out of preppers. I've no idea why as getting a couple of extra bits on each weekly shop so you can build up a bit of a stockpile over time and stay at home if you need to is way more sensible than joining the hoardes panic buying like we saw during Covid.

Good luck growing vegetables in our climate changed future!

This has been the advice in the UK for a while now - I must have read it a year or 2 ago as I dutifully ordered a wind up radio and some water purification tablets.

I was planning an end of summer review of our tinned products and water as I think our supplies are dwindling, and our local water company has been regularly leaving our neighbours without water all summer. We were very grateful we were abroad at the time.

I also need to check our stash of batteries, power banks, candles, matches etc. We have a solar charged power bank which is great in summer but may not be so effective in severe rain/storms!

What are you suggesting? Executing the natives?

On another note I try not to worry about the actual apocalypse because like most people who rely on life-saving medication being renewed every few weeks I will just die really quickly! One less mouth to feed in the upcoming water wars. May fortune favour your district 🫡

The government should be sorting the major issues and not trying to placate the population by suggesting a cupboard of tinned food and bottle water would somehow help, it'd all very When the Wind Blows. And yes, if it was major news it'd be carnage out there at the supermarkets.

At the start possibly. But I think most people do have a bit of flexibility to buy the odd extra packet here or there when they are on offer. Obviously there are some people who have absolutely nothing to cut back on elsewhere. Those people are going to be the ones who are going to be most affected by the coming price rises. They don’t have the money to absorb that. That is where support from local food banks and community hubs needs to be aimed first. Not at people who could have afforded it but decided it was ridiculous scaremongering.

Honestly, on a very low income sudden unexpected payments are the reason I get most use from the store cupboard at the moment.

Sensible advice.

I always have a few days’ supplies in because of where I live, but would follow the advice anyway.

It's more likely that AI will view humans as a waste of space and water that could be spent running itself, and switch us off instead.

Look at how humanity has reacted to the climate crisis - widespread refusal to change in any even mildly inconvenient way.
You think a properly intelligent being is going to kill itself for the greater good? No way.

They always say it, nothing new

It actually does if its in plastic. Havent you seen all the warnings about leaving plastic water containers in hot or very cold conditions in a car. Something in the plastic causes it to be unsuitable to drink.

It is to take pressure off the supermarkets etc in the first few days if something major happened. Look at the queues of cars waiting for handouts of bottled water when there was the problem in the SE (?) a while back. if you can take responsibility for yourself and your family for at least 72 hrs then thats what you should do and then the people that absolutely cant for whatever reason have more chance of being helped. It just takes the pressure off the whole country, im not sure why some people find it so hard to understand. Being an adult is about taking responsibility for yourself and if you can, you should.