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

Top tip. As soon as you hear the 3 minute warning, fill the bath with cold water.

Well no, because with automated stock systems they won’t be able to replenish stock in a nation wide cyber attack anyway.

Government emergency planning would kick in to get food to people whilst it was resolved. There wouldn’t be some cash is king scenario (because you know what’s more king than cash- looting)

So I’ll be spending the last three minutes of my life filling a bath tub?

Amazing that the advice that many other European countries are giving their citizens is perceived as a "bad" government in the UK.

I would take me 90 seconds to disinfect it appropriately lest we had stray pubes in our drinking water 😂

Something else to look forward to.

I used to live in the City of Wells in the 70's and it was similar there then. The road over the Mendips used to get blocked, also the electricity supply was notably unreliable. There was one memorable occasion when the power went out and the roads were blocked. We were in walking distance of the town centre so we thought a walk into town was better than sitting at home in a cold house. All the pubs were open lit by candles and those that cooked on bottled gas (there was no mains gas there then) had made food like stews and jacket potatoes because experience had told them that the residents would be in town looking for a hot meal. It felt like travelling back in time.

I can't imagine not having a stock of food. Have done for over 40 years ever since we got snowed in for a week living on a housing estate in Kent!

No one knows what could happen - illness, break a limb and not be able to drive, floods, snowed in etc etc.

We have 2 freezers full of food. Mainly things we have made like curries, stews, shepherds pie etc but also bread, homemade soup, milk, veg, fruit etc. We are both vegetarian so have big bags or sacks of various lentils, chickpeas, different beans. We also have lots of pasta and rice and tinned foods like veg, bakes beans, tomatoes.

We did not have to go shopping for a couple of months after lockdown. We easily have enough food to last over 2 months now

These posts made me laugh

What will you do with the freezer food if the power is off for a long time though? Do you have a generator? This is where my preps fall down, i dont and it feels like a step too far for me to order one for some reason!

yup, also that and similar official advice has been online since the internet made websites possible. My NZ friend who I mentioned upthread, told me about their prep stuff back in the early 90's and it wasn't new in NZ then.

if its a chest freezer in a cool place and opened as little as possible, the food will be competely safe for around a week. Top and small stuff will thaw first so it can stretch things out to eat what is thawed or thawing rather than deforst frozen stuff.

Freezer food would be good for a few days. If the freezer is closed it will stay frozen, then you have at least a couple of days at least to use it. I'd use the most risky foods (like fish) first, saving the safer foods (vege dishes) til last. TBH if the power is off beyond that, wondering if food is safe will be the least of our worries.

My kids tease me about my store cupboard but I’m the daughter of a mother who grew up in WW2. She always had a decent supply of food for emergency meals and I’ve taken after her. We make sure we have plenty of batteries and candles too. Mind you we do live out in the sticks so may get cut off by bad weather…..

I’m the daughter of a mother who always had coffee in the house but not always food, so I keep a stocked cupboard as well.

Funny how that works.

No, but a long time ago I did watch 'Colossus: the Forbin Project'.

That film has influenced my distrust of computers for decades!

Well yes, if there is nothing in the shops AND you have no water AND no way of cooking it, then the rice and pasta will not be much use.

But if there's JUST nothing in the shops, or if you've also stocked up on water and a camping stove, then they'd be really useful. I don't think most people are prepping for everything going wrong all at once, most scenarios are much more mundane.

It's worth keeping a few bits that can be eaten straight from the can but dried food is really valuable because it takes less space and doesn't go off (brown rice goes a bit rancid eventually so make sure to rotate stock) and there are lots of situations when it would be useful.

And yet mine seems to go on as normal.

I'm not sure in what way your life is a distant memory.

We are currently on a lovely holiday looking at French landscape and French castles. My DCs will be going back to school when we get home. One has new uniform but looks like she's going to need new shoes.
All normal for the end of August I'd say.

I have kept a stock of canned and dried goods ever since the late '8Os when very unusually for Essex we had heavy snow. Predictably everything ground to halt. I couldn't commute into London for several days as trains weren't running, it was normally a 35 minute journey. We were okay but had some very odd meals for a few days..

It’s just common sense. In most other countries at least, but in the UK you start rambling on about toilet paper and become angry about it for some odd reason.

They’ll probably filter out 😂

This. It’s just so weird how the British constantly are pissed off about their Government. Just use your own common sense then. Because this is common sense.

The advice has been clear in other European countries for many years. Especially Scandinavia.

I have thought for a long time how awful it is that we are not encouraged to can food safely like they are in the US.

In the June heatwave this year, all the fridges and freezers failed in our nearest big supermarket. They had no fridge/freezer stuff at all for well over a week. All the nearby smaller shops were very quickly cleaned out of their cold stocks.

Makes sense at a societal level for those who are can to have some non-perishable food stored so that those who cant do that and also can't travel further afield to find supplies can access what the local shops have left.

me too