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

I added some water a while back, it’s probably out of date at some point so a bit of a waste really.

IIRC from the (many) Brexit no deal threads it became apparent that unless there posters here deliberately causing problems, many people don’t understand the efficient supply chains we have/JIC. And very few appreciate that the efficiency is for the benefit of the supermarkets not necessarily the consumers.

Russia is an absolute pro at causing disruption. It’s been doing it around the world for years, including a lot in the U.K. Most major organisations will have a contingency plan for dealing with it and train for it. But they aren’t fool proof.

I guess the question we really need to ask is if a cyber attack did take out you local supermarket chain, water company, electric company, bank, how well will you do? Or will you need to be asking friends/neighbour for help.

The problem with rice and pasta is you need both water and heat to cook it.

Best thing I can thing of is ... well I'll get my stock in before I create a run on it ...

But there are not a lot of long life foods that taste fine uncooked. I guess you have to develop a palate for cold baked beans. And it would keep you alive I guess.

Tbh for me all that matters is the banking/ merchant banking systems. If they were to go down nothing else matters. Retailers wont take cash when they can’t use tills or banking

since when did supermarkets not take cash?

me too and me too. Since adulthood, I have always lived in areas in the UK that frequently had some kind of water or energy issue (I know, its me, I am a jinx) so its second nature to me to keep a stock of food that can be cooked over a camping stove, dried full fat milk, candles, water sterilising tablets and now also wind up lights and a wind up radio. Since we had the mains water cut off for a week a couple of years ago, I have added a small stash of bottled water. We washed with filtered and boiled water from my waterbutts but I didn't fancy drinking it! I also keep a go bag packed with a few clothes, small first aid kit, the sort of wipes that can be used to wash with and a slab of kendal mint cake because it keeps better than chocolate. Advice to do this has been online for YEARS. At one time I had a work colleague from New Zealand where its a really common thing to do. She also said that over there its common to add a roll of binbags and toilet roll to the go bag so that if you don't have access to a loo, you can clean up after having a poo.
Got to say that when the dam burst at Whaley bridge and there were people saying they had left their houses with only what they stood up in I was a bit shocked because I assumed that everybody had a go bag and an evacuation plan
I have never had to use my prep stuff for real.
Its also worth thinking about your pets. I haven't got dogs anymore but we lived in New Jersey for a while where winter storms were common and we often heard on the radio that areas near us had opened things like churches for shelters. It was always said NOT to bring pets, so I always used to keep stuff in my car so that if necessary my dogs and I could sleep in the car together

Hey come on- we can live without rice or pasta! You can buy canned beans, packets of beans, jars of beans. You can also buy a small camping stove that you can cook on. Tinned soup, beans, eggs, etc.

camping stove.

out of date might be better than none at all.

Yep everyone should have a 'grab bag' (this is all online by the way.)

Passport, credit cards, cash, any other essential ID ( driving licence) , maybe copies of insurance docs , passwords (you can save those on your phone with a special app) essential meds if you take it ( ie a month's supply) small first aid kit, personal care stuff etc, torch, water .

I think there is a need (based on posts here) for MORE announcements and education on this

I'm quite surprised at posters who don't know you can get camping stoves (and fuel to run them) and the kind of foods you can store.

Most tins last for 2 years and if you keep your freezer stocked with some bread or things that are perishable, but can be eaten 'raw' or without being cooked in an oven, you can easily live for a week or so without shopping.

Interesting. It's how I have always lived really. I'm not sure how long they are planning to ask us to be prepped for, but in the 40 years I've been running a household, I've always kept enough in that it wouldn't matter if something happened and I couldn't get to the shops for a 2-3 weeks. I could go longer but the meals would get a bit odd!

I don't think of myself as a pepper, none of this is done for the apocalypse, more if I was ill or injured or when I was younger, if money was tight one month.

I remember being surprised when a young colleague was panicked about toilet rolls within a few days of the big crisis because she was down to her last one. I have always had a spare pack "in stock", replaced as soon as the penulitmate one is opened, the same with all other non perishable things I use regularly.

I always keep a few bottles of water in the garage too, although it's been there a long time, I'm not sure how keen I'd be to drink it!

When I got married an aunt gave me a box of candles "for when the lights fail". Being prepared is just what people did, we have become too reliant on "them" fixing everything for us.

Yeh I’ll probably keep it still

I also think its not "all or nothing" Its worth thinking about what you feel is essential and what would work for your family and starting there.

They won’t take cash when they can’t process your purchase through their tills

Brilliantly put! 👏

This......oh and MATCHES. I keep waterproof ones in the house, also super long ones which make it easier and safer to light stuff.

Exactly.

I live in a small town in the north east of Scotland where we mostly only have a smallish supermarket and it doesn't take long for said shop to run out of basic such as milk and bread if we get a few days of bad weather (a combination of deliveries not getting through and people who normally would shop outside of the town not wanting to venture out on the roads and therefore also going to said small shop).

Yes of course we can. I was just reassuring the pp I replied to that binning her pasta and rice stash wasn't the end of the world (and to think about doing it differently next time).

We have a hose ban here and I used some REALLY out of date stuff to keep some of my plants going

I'm sure they will find a way once they are on the brink of losing £millions.

Yes, when faced with flooding and other situations, slightly out of date bottled water suddenly would look very clean and innocuous.

I water our plants with the stuff from the condenser collection bit on the tumble dryer. They haven't complained yet!

How can water be out of date???

Use it at home now- just boil it.

The concern is the plastic - the longer it's stored more chance you will drink plastic.
Very good prog on Radio 4 about this not long ago- risks of drinking water form plastic bottles.

Yes, that's why bottled water has a date. It's the plastic, not the water that goes out of date.

Government going off at half cock, as usual. See portable BBQs - didn't bother to ban them when it mattered but waited till the weather was likely to break (as it has). Daft lot who think managing a country is the same as running it - it's not.