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?

I just realised that while I'm not on any medication, I rely on my cheap contact lenses from the Netherlands. I will have to remember to put in an extra large order in February. I expect there's going to be an end to that convenience and will eventually have to buy them at the opticians here at a much higher price.

So our oil DOESNT come from the EU?

Norway sets its own tariffs?

Australia does import some fruit and vegs, Aja. Asparagus from South America, citrus and grapes from America for a start.

I'm not sure how people imagine it will be ok, given the government can't agree what Brexit will look like. March is 9 months away.

No food in supermarkets here = French farmers burning down Strasbourg.

It's hilarious to me that anyone thought Britain would have any genuine say in negotiations. We are leaving. Kissing every one off. We will basically have to take whatever deal we are given or walk away.

Regardless. Its going to be a few years of turmoil before shit gets sorted. I thought we didn't have a magic money tree. But brexit is going to cost billions. There is mass infrastructure to sort out. Huge legal contracts to be Drawn up. In areas the UK doesn't have experiance with. Not of the European union is pissed with us so I dont see why they would want to make those deals easy.

It will fuck our already precarious economy for a few years.

We have to rewrite laws and policies on jist about everything. And i can't see the UK government putting health and safety above economic reasons. That was the great thing about the EU. Being able to see the bigger picture. 5 years government don't care about the big picture. Only the short term.

Moleskinediary bad news I’m afraid, you can’t live off rabbit alone, it’s too lean - you can die of protein poisoning.

siwel123 the UK’s current flying arrangements are through the EU. Which is why tour operators are including a Brexit clause in their post March 2019 holidays saying they can’t guarantee flights will be available.

BG2015 Oil and Gas UK calculated that the UK’s import costs for oil and gas would double with no deal and relying on WTO terms.

oilandgasuk.co.uk/brexit-and-the-uk-oil-and-gas-industry/

Rather than focusing on individual stockpiling and arming your household so that you can threaten Pauline from next door when she asks for a handful of your last bag of rice, wouldn't it be better to go to a local council meeting and ask about local contingency plans for rationing and distribution in a no deal scenario? Even get involved, maybe by joining the parish council or standing for election? You know, act like we live in a functioning society which may have taken a dubious turn, rather than a film.

All I can say is I hope the people who voted for brexit feel guilty they have screwed their country over

And please let us all remember that it is David Cameron that did this - he asked a stupid question that no one understood and without being properly thought through

Thanks for seconding my proposal pretzels

Shall we turn this into a pledge thread for Leave voters to solemnly promise not to set aside so much as a dried bean, or should that be a new thread? After all, it’s one thing to blithely type about scaremongering and how glorious things will be on March 30, but I think a true patriot would be genuinely delighted to prove their convictions.

We have 299 days - LESS THAN 300 DAYS - until this happens... that does not seem long at all, I've had holiday countdowns that were longer than that...

I think I will stockpile brie in case it gets too expensive after Brexit.

I’ll be stockpiling, because I always do. I live in a rural area (Scotland), and we tend to go to Glasgow/Edinburgh and do two or 3 massive Costco shops a year for cleaning products, coffee beans, alcohol, non perishable and dry foods (and a couple of weeks of fresh/fridge-able food each time). It costs a lot- but saves a lot too (we keep the larder in proper rotation so it doesn’t get wasted).
Come Brexit... it’ll just be sensible to make sure we are at the start of a Costco cycle, not at the end of it!

As for fuel, well you can stockpile some just by topping up your tank more often. DH and I both get about 3- 3.5 weeks out a tank of petrol/diesel, and normally wouldn’t fill up until about 30miles before empty. In times of uncertainty (ie we have had fuel blockades not so long ago in Scotland), we adopted a “little and often” fill up policy of trying to keep at least 3/4 a tank in each car. That would be enough enough to last maybe 6 weeks if we cut car use to the absolute minimum... enough, I’d hope, to iron out any Brexit related supply issues!

Kursk,
Reading back through the thread, your posts are illuminating (if somewhat concerning!).
I guess that old saying is true... we are only 3 meals away from anarchy!

We only have 3 days of stock for food in the U.K. The country as a whole is NOT indépendant, buying british or not.
As we are dependent on imports to be able to feed ourselves, we need clearance at the ports etc...
The problem is that the system isn’t able to cope with all our imports from the EU atm (cue for all the huge queues,delay in coming through, mistakes because people won’t have the right paperwork etc etc).
Of course, the U.K. will be able to buy food from other places than the EU (we already do) but the issue here is the infrastructure that isn’t read and won’t be for a few more years.
Gas and electricity? Well is coming through pipeline so we might hope for less issues. Electricity might be more hit and miss.
Flights? Unless they pull their fingers out, there is no sky agreement on the horizon so a lot of restrictions with flying.
Medicine will have the same issue of food imports. Plus the issue of having medicines approved (no system in place for that either - it’s a European wide approval).

Basically I tend to agree with the poster who said that it can’t be a No Deal situation because of how bad, even the best option is. It’s not scaremongering, even though it does look apolitical in the short term.
However, if there is any hint of that, I will be out.

Elements Leavers wont be doing any stockpiling because they are so convinced that either nothing will change or it will be glorious that they won’t feel the need to that.

Which is fine. Everyone has their own convictions.

What I am more surprised is the fact that none seem to realise that if we dint actually have food on the shelves or have to go back to rationing (some people have mentioned that as a possibility btw). Very little petrol etc, it’s also the whole economy that is going to collapse.

Because the same reasons that will stop food coming in the country will stop raw material for factories coming in the country.
Restrictions in petrol will stop goods from moving easily so more stops on the economy.
Same with electricity (anyone who can easily work wo or with little electricity??)

Surely the Govt wouldn't be stupid enough to be pushing ahead with Brexit if it would potentially jeopardise food supplies .....,

Or are they?

Just as well this whole Brexit thing has been so well thought out.

Don't bother stockpiling petrol. I'm a prepper but this doesn't seem worth the aggro. I prep anyway. Not because of Brexit. I have food, water, light and heat sorted that doesn't require Just InTime deliveries to supermarkets and a fully functioning Grid , should those fail or be interrupted.
That said, if my parents (an hour's drive away) were still alive and I needed to reach them in a tricky situation, I probably would keep a bit of extra petrol. But, again, that's nothing to do with Brexit.
I think the Brexit campaign had lies on both sides, the worst being the£350 million bollocks. I voted Remain.

Something I find sad is that because of the remain vs leave positioning, it's v difficult for the media to properly scrutinise the governments plans.

I moved back to Ireland around the time of the vote, and I listened to a fascinating news report on the radio a month or so ago where they had sent a reporter to I think it was the Swiss border, spoken to the lorry drivers, talked about the infrastructure and what real delays they faced, spoken to people about why it wouldn't be possible for the border with Northern Ireland or for Dover/France to use a similar model with no deal.

Dublin Port has just spent an absolute fortune on alternative infrastructure, and there's now a direct ferry route between Ireland and Spain starting. Traditionally, our European imports have come through the UK: these responses haven't been scaremongering or politically motivated, they've been the result of indepth analysis of likely outcomes, risks and potential mitigation.

I haven't heard anything similar in the U.K. Response or the UK media, largely because the government is dragging its heels and also because any examining of the issue is still presented as being pro or anti leave, when it's time to move past that and start analysing how to make things better.

If there's no deal, then I probably would stockpile, but it will be the equivalent of a really bad storm, not a zombie apocalypse- the government isn't going to allow civil unrest, the army would be involved in distribution before too long.

On balance though, it's much more likely the UK will stay in the CU and not that much will change. Which rather begs the question if it was worth it all.

If you are concerned, check out the Preppers topic on MN. We are not all zombie predicting, gun toting wannabe nutters.
You'll get some helpful tips particularly from people who live in the countryside and have to plan for supply hiccups as the norm.

The level of denial on this thread is utterly depressing. No wonder we voted to leave - people can't seem to grasp the most basic facts.

It's simple.

At the moment ALL our deals - trade/ visa arrangements/free skies are done through the EU. We have a trade deal with (insert non-EU country here) because we are in the EU. When we are no longer in the EU - we no longer have that deal with that country. Multiply that by every country not in the EU.
Then obviously we lose all our rights to trade within the EU.

At the moment most lorries coming off ferries bring food or raw materials are coming from the EU. As part of the SM and CM they simply roll on and roll off the ferry. They are waved through and no one stops to check them. As of 30th March 2019 every single one of those lorries will have to be stopped and inspected. This is why Dover will be crippled on day one. And NO we can't just use Southampton (FFS ) because it will be crippled too.

This does mean food will not reach supermarket shelves. That is not a 'maybe'. That is not a 'they'll do something else'. That is the natural and inevitable consequence of a no deal brexit. And in 18 months the govt have achieved nothing. we have 9 months left. They are lumbering towards a no deal exit due to the ideology of the ERG and the incompetence of the rest.

If we simply crash out, then it is not just all our deals with the EU we lose, it is all our deals with everyone because we are currently dealing with them as part of a massive and powerful trading bloc - not as ourselves. Come March 30th we will be cut off from everyone else in the world. Day zero. And it will be pandemonium.

Following that - we will be absolutely desperate, and in no position to start negotiating FTAs with other countries - because literally every other country in the world will be in a more powerful position than we are. Because none of them (no matter what their GDP or size or place in the world) will have just isolated themselves from 40 years worth of incredibly complex and far reaching agreements and treaties without a backup plan.

This is what will happen if we leave without a deal. It is an inevitability, it is the natural consequence of cutting yourself out of a global world. As time runs out, this becomes more likely every day. FFS this is your future. This is your children's future. And people with only 9 months to go don't understand why the ports will be crippled, or that we will cease to be a part of the whole free skies agreement?
I cannot believe the level of denial or wilful ignorance in the face of impending utter fucking disaster.
Go out and learn about all this. And then don't just decide it can't happen - (because it can and it will) - get fucking angry - and then start to fight.

There is a march for a people's vote on the 23rd June. This isn't asking for a second referendum. It is saying that the people have the right to decide if the final deal is good enough - or if we will be better off staying in after all.

It will be based on the actual deal - not pie in the sky promises and outright lies. But the cold hard facts - which is what did for the remain campaign, they couldn't compete with unicorns on offer from a bunch of charlatans who never seriously thought they would be expected to deliver.

If a deal isn't sorted by October ( a scenario that is looking ever more likely) then the choice will be crash out or remain. Or to put it another way: definite food shortages, potential riots, maybe rationing, definite economic breakdown, maybe societal breakdown, no flights, no visa arrangements with other countries, loss of all workers rights (although I imagine not much work will be getting done) and medicine and fuel shortages.
Or everything can stay as it is.

Which would you vote for? Don't you think you have the right to vote in the face of such consequences? Democracy is supposed to be an ongoing conversation - not a decision made on one day that then becomes sacrosanct. As the information changes, we are allowed to change our minds and that is still democratic.
Don't bury your head in the sand - if you do, the likelihood of no deal increases as there is no pressure on the govt to deliver anything else. And if all this does happen - not a person on this thread can't claim you weren't warned.

So get out there and march. Do what you can to protect your fucking country and your children's future.

lettuceWrap

We prep because DH and I know we can’t survive as part of a gang in some crisis. We are not strong dominant people so we have to do something else.

I like to think that it will all be unicorns and rainbows, but I plan for the worst case scenario.

If this situation ends badly. People will be panicking, some because they have no way to feed their family. Others because they stockpiled supplies and have just realized they are now a target.

Worst case the government will introduce rationing and martial law BUT not until it’s too late. Because the moment they do they are telling the people they have lost control.

If you look at the train debacle you will realise that the country grinds to a halt quickly.
And quite a lot of the train situation is the government's fault as apparently they are not good at listening.

It's people like you that don't leave any decent food on the shelves on bank holiday and Christmas. People panicking makes a shortage.