To stockpile food, medicine and petrol?

[Laudanumm]

So apparently we're now at very high risk of exiting the EU in March without a trade agreement with the EU. The government wanted to keep it secret, but it's been leaked that the middle of the 3 outcomes they're discussing, so not the bad one, is the port of Dover collapsing on day 1, immediate food shortages and almost immediate petrol and medicine shortages - as in, no food in the supermarkets. It's in the Sunday Times. AIBU to start stockpiling?

Tit4TatandAllThat Can you cut the swearing out.

You are not the thread police user we are allowed to swear on mumsnet. Brexit is a topic worth swearing about.

No - the EU will not suffer massive losses in the event of a no deal brexit. They will not suffer mass employment.
2 reasons for that. 1) The EU27 govts are quietly and competently getting on with preparations for such an event (new roro ferry between Ireland and Spain, port expansion and employment of thousands of more officials in Netherlands etc) The same cannot be said for our own govt.
2) Whilst the majority of our everything comes from somewhere within the EU27 - that is not true for the majority of their anythings coming from us. They will still have 26 other countries to trade with exactly the same. Plus all the FTAs they have with the rest of the world which they will be retaining. Our leaving is but a slight blip to them. Yes, they may need to rearrange their finances to allow for it... but it is nothing catastrophic. It's more an irritant than a problem.
Of course there may well be individuals and small businesses who have been reliant on trade with Britain who will have to make other arrangements - but major fall out for the 300 million EU citizens across the continent? Nope. Not even remotely likely.

Is there any leaver rhetoric that is grounded in reality? Or is capable of refuting the facts they are given with truths and not simply changing the subject like criticising posters for swearing ?

TheWorld have you seen the waiting list for allotments? Also not everyone has a chest freezer you know!

There will be millions without any food if any of this actually happens.

I am glad I buggered off to Australia!

lostinsunshine Not in ordinary circumstance, we might have to go without some fresh fruit etc

Haven’t RTFT but seriously concerned about a wine shortage

But suicide by staying in the sm/cu doesn’t take loads of other people with her!

Have you ever been into the storage behind a supermarket. It's tiny. Stuff gets delivered and it gets put on shelves.
Even if they could buy stuff in advance, there is nowhere to put it.

Tit4TatandAllThat I'm sure you understood what I meant 🙄 your really involved in everyone's comments aren't you

I agree. I'm just giving suggestions. I don't have a chest freezer either. Not many people do nowadays.
Since food supplies got better, hardly anyone does.

user1486062886

Unlikely but maybe but the moment rationing is announced panic will start. It will only slow down my scenario.

My relatives business in Greece now has to be owned by an EU citizen rather than a Brit. Luckily, like me, he is also an Irish citizen so that has been sorted. If a screwed up economy like Greece is taking these low level measures to protect their small businesses, it's pretty safe to assume that all EU economies are preparing to weather the hiccup of our leaving.

Icantreachthepretzels So a EU business that has 50-70 % exports to the U.K. can just find new customers like that, The local ferry companies can diversify, Euro tunnel and its freight traffic will just sit bye. Etc

Absolutely, lost.
Why does this idea of the UK as a huge, dick-swinging economic behemoth persist?
The fucking place didn’t even create its shitty empire by itself. It’s never stood on its own two feet. Ever.

@BackInTime , I have to be honest and say that wine shortage is the thing I can't prepare for. Although my late mother made a mean elderflower wine. But that was the 70s and I hadn't discovered prosecco.

NewMinouMinou But do politicians think like that, it would be the end of the tidies for a few decades, some people might be happy with that

A lot of the companies that export mainly to the UK will just have to tour for business elsewhere in the 27. The reason that lots of companies send stuff here is because we had an amazing credit rating and credit guarantee system that meant businesses would choose the UK first because they had more chance of getting paid on time.
Now, they’ll just look at the others.

Theresa May committed political suicide the day she took on the Premiership. What we are watching now is her lengthy and agonising death throes.
Considering she is an elderly lady of failing health - I don't imagine she had much longer left in politics, even if remain had won and business had carried on as normal.
What she has now is a choice of staying in the SM and the Cm and maybe getting ousted by the ERG (though by no means a definite - the tory rebels would do everything in their power to prevent an ERG candidate - and if TM was softening on brexit they would actively protect her.)
OR: clinging on until March and plunging the nation into chaos - followed by her immediate sacking (and potential lynching).
I guess the question is - are those extra 9 months really that important to TM?

One more thing to think of... water. Within easy walking distance of my house I have a stream, and a couple of trout ponds (food there too then!). It wouldn’t be too difficult to fetch and carry from them if the need arose.

Think about where you’d get water from if there was a period of civil unrest - and how you’d make it safe to drink - put water purification tablets on your Zombie Apocalypse shopping list?
A lot of water supplies are pumped, not gravity fed, which seems more vulnerable to me (to any kind of supply interruption).
If you really suspected that the water might go off, you could fill containers (or the bath!). And cover them if possible, to keep dust etc out. Realistically things would probably have to be pretty bad before that happened.

I don’t know how they think, user, tbh.
I don’t think a life without Tories is worth all these scenarios though.

NewMinouMinou No we don’t have a big economy, but we import far more than we export, the EU exporters will have to find new customers and pretty quick if they are going to continue

@user1486062886 , not sure what the tidies are. Your predictive text playing up again, no doubt. But, assuming you have children, are you really happy about messing up the economy for a generation. ... their generation.. for the greater "good".
I was a teenager in the 80s. I watched my generation getting shat on "for the greater good". It wasn't anything to wish for.

user1486062886, I completely agree with Icant:

Theresa May committed political suicide the day she took on the Premiership. What we are watching now is her lengthy and agonising death throes.

Tidies was Tories.

If it looks like no deal in February, I'm taking DS and DH and getting on a plane to my mum's place in continental Europe. I'm not staying here for this chaos. I don't want to have to think about looting and defending my home against my neighbours. I'm fucking incensed this is even a vague possibility.

I am still holding out hope that not even the most headbanging, reality-denying, Empire-nostalgia-drenched Tories will plunge the country into this utter nonsense. Anyone with any kind of brain was able to see these problems (hello, NI border!) coming a country mile off. Not one single Leaver has come up with a workable solution yet. In 2 years, or 40 depending on how you look at it. Let alone being able to articulate one single benefit beyond a vague and completely intangible notion of sovereignity.

Interestingly, all the said Tories are lining up at the moment to disavow their parts in the whole debacle, even Farridge. The tide is turning. Whether it will be enough...who knows? I can't trust politicians any more.

They already are doing, User. That’s my point. They had them lined up as second and third preference before the referendum was even announced because that’s how business works.

What, still no patriotic volunteers pledging not to prepare any reserves? I find the lack of faith... disturbing.