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.

Trouble could be coming to central London and Manchester on 20th November for a 'day of action'. That also happens to be the same day Andy Burnham is going to be in talks with the EU at the leaders' summit.

https://www.export.org.uk/insights/trade-news/day-in-trade-uk-and-eu-confirm-20-november-date-for-much-awaited-leaders-summit/

Self sufficient in my view, always.

I stumbled across some posts on fb this morning about lots of schools in Scotland and Ireland receiving bomb threats, theres an article on bbc about it. They are saying it’s a hoax but lots of comments on fb about keeping kids off school.

Well plenty of fuel for our thread in todays telegraph

Labour cuts £2bn from Army front line

Google Cloud down latest: Banking apps crash after system outage

Job vacancies plunge to five-year low – latest updates

Grid bosses cling on as investigation lays bare blackout panic

This week the weather has got much colder, much wetter and much darker. So no doubt everyone (including myself) has turned their heating on this week. Chaos in 5,4,3,2,..........
I'm off to do a ton of laundry today to get everything up to date.

Meanwhile what is going on with all the banking apps going down? Has Russia been a naughty boy?

Vacancies going down and interest rates going up......I wonder how that is going to affect the housing market. I already noticed signs of slowdown where I am. I'm planning on moving in the next few years so hopefully we are not about to relive 2008 again.

Meanwhile - we are cutting spending on our army? what? I thought we were supposed to be increasing our defence. Bloody shambles

Meanwhile I've eaten half the cereal bars in my stockpile. I normally don't buy them but I've developed quite a taste for them and the sugar high I am getting. This is why I don't buy sugary food cos I just eat it.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/c58jd2kjp93xt It's a Google cloud outage. They say it was a power related issue.

BREAKING: The Royal Air Force will help to defend Saudi Arabia from attacks by Iranian-backed Houthi militants.

The new mission will see Typhoon fighter jets operating to protect Saudi cities, airports and other infrastructure from missile and drone attacks.

A written statement to parliament by @wesstreeting confirmed the deployment which was first reported by @business

The defence secretary said: "These aircraft will operate in a defensive role and will not conduct offensive strikes against the Houthis."

Britain will also provide an Atlas A400M transport
aircraft

Hmm.

Sky News
BREAKING: Multiple online services are down or 'experiencing issues.'

Google Cloud has reported "issues" in its western Europe region affecting dozens of websites, including; Revolut, Royal Mail and HSBC.

https://news.sky.com/story/google-outage-latest-banks-and-delivery-services-affected-by-outage-13600814
Sky live thread.

Google Cloud services are experiencing disruptions after a "power event", the company said in a statement.

Analysis: It's a miracle this doesn't happen more often
By Rowland Manthorpe, technology correspondent

There has never been a more misleading term than "the cloud". The thing that runs much of our digital life is actually a huge number of computers stashed away in giant warehouses.

This system allows businesses to do their work on someone else's computer. It's flexible, powerful and (for the most part) cost-effective.

The trouble is that, increasingly, that "someone else" is one of just a few companies: Google, Microsoft and Amazon. Collectively, they account for about 60% of global cloud infrastructure spending, which means that when one of them suffers an outage, even briefly, it can affect huge swathes of digital life.

The risks are serious enough that financial regulators have begun directly overseeing critical services supplied by the biggest cloud providers. The Bank of England has warned that disruption or failure could threaten UK financial stability.

Usually when one of these systems goes down, the causes are fairly mundane and recovery is often quick.

In June last year, a faulty configuration update triggered global problems at Google Cloud and the main disruption lasted about three hours.

But that example shows how a small change can have big consequences. These systems are extraordinarily complex and if anything the real miracle is that they don't go down more often.

Agree with that last statement given DHs career and the shit he tells me!

https://www.dailymail.com/news/article-16218649/amp/paris-protests-river-cruise-tourists-riots.html
Reality of Paris two days ago.

And the parody of the French Riots

https://x.com/Wytsekoetse/status/2112211697008075021

Weather's ghastly here (W Midlands) and will be for the next few days, plus or minus Storm Austen. Maybe a good time to have your blackout preps in place, know where your torch(es) are and candles/lights/matches. Fill a thermos. Also check round your garden and make sure things are not going to go flying in the wind!

Bought some sachets of vegan ready meals 'Bombay spiced lentils and potatoes', jars of almond butter and packets of Jammy Dodgers on offer today, will see how long they last.
Impressed by the brightness of the wind-up torches I bought recently but one of the little handles you hold to wind them broke off straight away.
Already practising blackouts of a simple kind as my energy company Octopus regularly invites customers to turn their power down for an hour at set times in the week usually at 6pm to save energy for rewards.

We have all come down with terrible colds. Good job for the stash of meds and toilet rolls for the runny noses.

Wish it would stop raining right now.

BREAKING: Two men re-arrested in RAF Fairford investigation:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cqm26z110vzko

A 24-year-old UK national, and a 25-year-old dual UK-Iranian national, are being held on suspicion of assisting a foreign intelligence service under Section 3 of the National Security Act 2023, with police saying the investigation relates to Iran.

It’s suddenly become so dark outside. I cycle to work and must get a new proper light for my bike. Couldn’t see a thing this morning. Also ice on the car already.

Thanks for providing that info. I suppose power related sounds quite worrying as well. I'm definately expecting powercuts this winter.

I have had a cold for over two weeks, wish it would go away. We always stock up on Nurofen Cold & Flu (the behind the counter one) when in the UK,

I’ve been looking at ghee, clarified butter - has anyone here actually tried it..?

Hello, I've been lurking a little while but saw this on my Facebook feed tonight. I thought it was from one of the prepper feeds (thanks algorithm), but it's actually North Devon Council.

I use it for cooking, particularly curries. It works well in that, but not sure about spreading it on toast etc.

My cold has been going on for about 3 weeks, its miserable, had to take a couple of days off last week as my lungs were hurting which made me worry about pneumonia which made me think about how scary it would be if we can't get antibiotics

Arnaud Bertrand AT RNaud
If it keeps going at this rate, we might, for (I think) the first time in history, be about to witness the first continent-wide youth revolt in Europe - a "European spring" of sorts.

The sheer number of countries where it's already happening is pretty overwhelming. I count 8, including 4 with violent clashes:

- France, famously
- Albania (see below) with daily clashes in Tirana and a government building set alight
- Belgium: the French movement spilled over, including riots in Liège
- Italy: "No Meloni Day" student protests since 16 October, turning into riots in Milan, Turin and Bologna
- Greece: students camping in Athens' Syntagma Square over housing and education costs, explicitly inspired by France
- Germany: pupils blockading schools in Berlin and Hamburg in solidarity with France
- Spain: an indefinite education strike in Madrid, with students marching alongside teachers and families
- Serbia: the student movement born from the 2024 Novi Sad station collapse is now running its own list in the 25 October election

And, by the way, the fact it's also happening in countries with close to no immigration - like Albania - goes to show how reductive it is to label these movements, like JD Vance and Trump did with France, as the fruit of "the migrants hav[ing] taken over."

As is often the case, it's much more a story of "it's the economy, stupid." As such, Trump with his war on Iran, has ironically done much more to fuel this (pun intended) than any migrant.

Interesting observation and a post that puts together what's happening across the continent.

Al Jareeza Iraq has announced it is to close its borders with Iran over the next couple of days starting today. This is for an indefinite period due to fears of an US-Iran escalation. Pakistan has already done this.

Some short term good news. Jackdaw online within the month.

Steven Swinford (The Times)
Breaking:

The government has now formally approved the Jackdaw gas field and says it will start to supply British homes and businesses by the end of the month

It says that at its peak it will increase domestic gas production by 6%

John Healey, the Chancellor, is also announcing an ‘energy wealth fund’. It will use tax revenues from the North Sea to invest in green projects, with an initial £2billion of funding

Miatta Fahnbulleh, the energy secretary, says it will not stop the UK from meeting its net zero targets

Andy Burnham: ‘I welcome the Energy Secretary’s decision, which will protect hundreds of jobs and help keep millions of homes warm this winter. At a time when people are really struggling, it's right that we look in a responsible way at maximising the existing energy reserves we have in Britain that could help

‘We’re committed to moving towards renewable energy and reaching net zero by 2050. But even on our ambitious climate path, we’ll still require oil and gas as part of our energy needs for decades to come. That’s why we’re taking a pragmatic approach to the North Sea.’

Yes!! Finally a grain of common sense!

Didn't know so many countries were having student protests, that's very interesting.
I remember my dream as a student was to get to participate in a protest! Only opportunity was when students were protesting against the teaching strike by lecturers but I was on the teachers' side