Crisis What Crisis? Is my friend over doing the stockpiling and am I too? Continuation thread (2)

[RedToothBrush]

Continuation of the AIBU to think my friend is overdoing emergency stockpiling thread for discussion about the government advice to stockpile for an imminent emergency and what the heck that emergency might actually be.

I'm moving it over to chat from AIBU as it makes a bit more sense to be there at this point.

Previous thread
https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/5576816-aibu-to-think-my-friend-is-overdoing-emergency-stockpiling?page=1

Spoiler: it's more of a perfect storm of lots of factors coming together to potentially form one great clusterfuck from economic woes, global energy shortages (mainly diesel), potential food shortages, war and madmen to crazy weather patterns rather than a clear identifiable singular thread.

This is a practical thread and a bit of a handhold thread to make sense of events and how they may affect you. This is not an end of the world thread.

We are however going through a period where various governments throughout Europe think there is an elevated risk of some kind of problem due to global instability and we should start to get our heads around the possibility of needing to be ready for anything.

Remember an emergency can range from a temporary unexpected event to a much longer crisis but the underlying principles generally stay the same.

So this is for everything from tips and considerations about what might be a good idea to do /save minimise potential risks to just straight old political bollocks talk about how things are developing.

This is the official government information and advice, if you want further details on what the actual recommendations are:
https://prepare.campaign.gov.uk/get-prepared-for-emergencies/

This does actually explicitly say to write a personalised plan for your household which everyone knows and understands and to talk about the issues you may face to help you be able mobilise for any situation which might arise. Which is exactly what this thread is ultimately for.

Thanks for the new thread.
I was wondering about buying a fire pit, I have no front or back garden but live close to meadows and woods.

Sounds like a good idea. We used ours a lot during cold winters when our children were young, for stick bread and marshmallows.. It was great.

Don’t forget a fire blanket.

I've spent the afternoon in beer gardens in the North West.

I have recruited a friend for my micro army who is suitably ruthless and suitably skilled.

Just checking in.

Been lurking, everyone around me thinks im mad when I mention any of this, my husband has tolerated me creating a small stockpile but he thinks its unnecessary, i can just see this being a really hard winter with everything going on in the world and want to get a few provisions in just in case

And now there's a plague outbreak reported in Russia. Suddenly lock down 2.0 doesn't seem so far fetched.

A thread with @RedToothBrushAND @OhYouBadBadKitten 🤩 My absolute favourite MNetters for any crisis, checking in!

I've been lurking. I bought extra in the shopping this week and gathered a load of minor prep supplies that I already own into one bag this weekend - torches, batteries, wind up radio, matches, cash, first aid, bivvy bag, power bank, wipes etc. Just so I would know exactly where to go if any of it is needed. A couple more bits left to do including writing important things down on paper. Just doing these little bits and pieces hasn't taken a lot of time or money but has helped me process some of my thoughts. I need a plan for DD who is 4+ hours away at University but I really don't know what that will look like so if anyone else has thought about this sort of thing I'd be interested to hear about it.

1984Winston I hope your small stockpile is of things you like to eat and Mr W doesn't!

Agree 🤣

Batwalk a full petrol tank and a road map in the car would be a good start, others will hopefully be along for more ideas as having similar thoughts, though students together can be pretty resourceful.

Ok just a dumb thought, when our children were younger we got them proper walkie talkies for when we were out in the forest/lakes..just for fun & adventure (we obviously had mobile phones) but then we discovered they actually worked well when we were in separate cars etc. If phones were down.

Roadmap is a v good idea. I'm keeping the car topped up anyway.

It is actually 🤣 hes fussier than me and doesnt like rice and pasta! He also never thought covid would be a problem 🙄 hes not daft hes just more optimistic than me!

We have a huge chest freezer and lots of cans. We are buying 10-14 solar panels for our roof and getting rid of the diesel asap.

Well actually it would be far fetched to have another round of the Black Death when we have antibiotics that can sort it out before it even gets up and running. The young woman who died sadly delayed going to a hospital for treatment so very quickly succumbed. We shouldn't need to worry about that particular pathogen causing a pandemic.

Spot on. The only question is why she didn’t follow protocol, for her own sake.

I know, it's baffling. The only insight I had was from my scientist friend who said sometimes in science it's easy to try to ignore exposures. "oh, that'll be okay," "oh, that mouse just nibbled me, drew a little blood, but it wasn't infected with anything, I will be fine". She said the latter actually happened to her but it wasn't a mouse carrying a human pathogen! Perhaps there was some sort of denial going on.

Imagine dying of the plague. When you don’t even have to. It’s all a bit strange.

We do live in strange times!

Strange and dangerous times.
I was just thinking today - back in the 80's it felt like we knew who the 'enemy' was. Now it all seems such a tangled mess.

So true, was just thinking that, life seemed much simpler.

What stock of antibiotics does the UK have?

Silly question but do we have enough? And how quickly could you administer if you need those antibiotics with 24hrs of exposure?

Something tells me the logistics on this are pretty huge and that it would take sometimes to streamline.

Also, now calculate drug shortages due to power issues around the world and a shortage of fuel.

Afp reporting says the Iranian oil minister has departed from his job.

And the US bombers at RAF Fairfield flew out this morning and it's been confirmed they'd decided to relocate them back to the US

CNN are saying it was "pneumonia of unknown origin", so not clear if it was indeed the plague or another pathogen.

https://edition.cnn.com/2026/10/04/europe/russia-laboratory-plague-accident-intl

Anyone seen anything corroborate this? All other media seem to be sure it was the plague.
If it wasn't, that might explain why the lab worker wasn't saved by antibiotics. I would actually find that more concerning.