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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

To think that this place has gone completely nuts?

287 replies

WellErrr · 29/07/2018 11:04

I've had a break of a few weeks, and come back to many threads about prepping, stockpiling food and batterie so, and mass panic about the end of civilisation as we know it.

Dafuq!?

OP posts:
CaptainKirkssparetupee · 29/07/2018 18:04

Do people realise almost everything even the "fresh" apples in the supermarket are 6 months to a year old?
Stockpiling is normal.

fieryginger · 29/07/2018 18:04

I'm going to stockpile chocolate... in my mouth. It is crazy.

Roussette · 29/07/2018 18:05

Up until these threads started I assumed that it was normal to be prepared for stuff

It depends how prepared 'prepared' means. Yes I keep tins in, and the odd bag of pasta and rice, and we've got 2 freezers because we're not that close to shops. But what I keep in is just normal, it's what most people would do. I am no prepper, I just run a normal house and can't be arsed to keep going to the shops so I keep stuff in

Blushah · 29/07/2018 18:05

I am a Remainer.

I admit I am erring towards the side of concerned because those who are the closest to having any idea of what's going on in the corridors of power are advising us to stockpile.

That's not the most encouraging, positive message to send out, is it?

I am fully aware that society, as we know it, won't collapse. However, at an ordinary, individual level, I think we will see certain items disappear from our shops; I think we will see some rather surprising price rises on others. I think we will experience shortages of some.

On the level of certain medications, things like HRT (Belgium) and nuclear med drugs, to name a couple, plans will be put in place to buy them, but they will be at extortionate prices. Planes will take off and land, but the mark-up on fares will place holiday flights beyond the reach of many. To name a couple of tiny examples.

Yes, we grow stuff but we need to be aware yields have fallen dramatically due to this summer and the disappearance of pickers. This will push up prices. Yes, countries will want to sell their stuff to us, but some won't be allowed to due to other trade obligations; others will do so, but on their terms (chlorinated chicken in a can , anyone Wink?).

I am aware that 60% of Leavers are OK with family and friends losing jobs over Brexit, so I can only assume they're all OK with this.

I'm not so delighted, but the fact remains, no pun intended, that Britain needs to get an arse kicking like this. It's the only way we're going to move away from this "WW2 movies at Xmas/ Winston Churchill/ bloody johnny forriner" mentality- the things that are really 'holding us back'. I mean, who are the Brexiteers' front-runners for PM ? Boris-The-Clown and Arch-Toff JRM. I mean, really. In 2018. That's the best we can up with. Churchillian caricature.

Quite a few people are going to discover that Nostalgia: It ain't what it used to be!- once the novelty of shortage, price rises, queues and being forced to kowtow to nations we've comfortably assumed to be our inferiors- dictate the terms.

If nothing else, that helps me come to terms with what lies ahead (that and possession of a non-EU passport! Grin).

An important difference from the Blitz Spirit of WW2 is that an external force threatened us. This time, the damage will have been self-inflicted by the will of 37% of the electorate on everybody......

The reality is, a painful period of reckoning may be what we need to clear our bloated, sclerotic ways of thinking; our obeisance to Eton Power, our entire political system, our reliance on the funny-money that London as a global-clearing-house has brought, our sense of entitlement to The Good Things In Life that much of the world can only dream about. We need to be pushed off Top Tables that, to date, history has afforded us a place at. Already, seeing the incredulity of much of the world at the apparent home-goal we have gaily scored, I think we may have forfeited our place for the time being; and, it cannot be ignored that Greece and Spain's economies, to name two, have turned corners since they were forced to start to put their houses in order by the EU.

Speaking of them, I believe a good proportion of their ills were home grown: cooking the books to get into the EU/Euro (and being allowed.. Hmm in the first place); rampant tax avoidance, graft and corruption endemic in their public institutions. They have, like us, benefited from the EU, maybe disproportionately, but we have benefited from the youth and energy of their young...

So, although it took a EU spanking to make them recalibrate their economies; and we're lining up for a global spanking to sort us out, maybe it will be for our benefit in the longer run?

Like the well-off who have financial safety nets to allow such rumination, as the trebling of their food and utilities bill will only cause a bit of a gasp in Waitrose, I am able to be sanguine as my late teens can call upon their passports to weather the storm elsewhere, financially and early career-wise.

I only wish every less fortunate Remainer had the same. Sad.

rainbowsandsmiles · 29/07/2018 18:06

Keeping back a few extra tins for emergencies can be seen as normal - definitely isn't to be in all seriousness saying dismantle your bath sides and hoard tins under there or to go burying food in the woods like some have been saying.

rainbowsandsmiles · 29/07/2018 18:08

That was to Captain by the way

Seasawride · 29/07/2018 18:09

Rousette

Same vintage age we are Grin

No RedNeck it’s not really what most people do but it’s ok it’s your choice. Do you have a bunker in case of a nuclear strike?

BalloonSlayer · 29/07/2018 18:14

Actually can any of you beat my prepping?

As a response to seeing a documentary about what would happen if a giant volcano such as yellowstone blew*, I ordered a set of 45 paper breathing masks as a precaution.

You may laugh but come the day you'll be banging on my door! Well you won't because the dust you have breathed in will have turned to concrete in your lungs. Of course my el cheapo flinsy paper masks will have made ALL the difference to me Hmm

OhYouBadBadKitten · 29/07/2018 18:15

well, given the government are now going to hold on to the technical notices until the end of August, rather than drip feed them one each week I expect things will calm down for a short while.

I don't think we all need months of supplies and be ready to defend our territory. But I do think that it is sensible to be prepared for a rocky March and April next year, with disruption to supplies if we end up with No Deal and no extension to negotiations.

For many people that's would mean peering at the shelves in the supermarket wondering why everything is so expensive and looking at gaps where certain things were. For those slightly more obscure medications (that includes me) we could see interruptions in supply. For those who are already on the breadline, the no deal no extension scenario would be a disaster.

We are looking at more expensive food this winter already, the drought has hit farming hard. I'm not going to air my private speculation about the weather prospects for the winter. I think that next Spring could be really really tough and for those on the edge already for whatever reason, this will be what tips them over.

However, I also think that maybe people should try to enjoy the summer holidays, because there's not a lot we can do about it other than take some personal responbility rather than rely on our just in time society.

CaptainKirkssparetupee · 29/07/2018 18:19

The irony of someone prepping for purge like brexit and then being killed by a volcano from Yellowstone.

Roussette · 29/07/2018 18:22

Seasawride given the age we are, that's why we just can't be arsed to get in a flap about it all Grin

Toooldtobearsed · 29/07/2018 18:25

I read these threads and think 'oh, what a great idea', then I remember, I am in my mid 50's and have lived through numerous strikes/shortages etc.,
None of them left me hungry, destitute or unable to care for myself and my family.

With all due respect, apart from having a well stocked larder and freezer, i will take my chances. I say that as a rampant remainer, and also as someone prepared to loot your cache if i am wrong😁

OhYouBadBadKitten · 29/07/2018 18:26

It sounds like you don't need to be in a flap about it Rousette, you sound well set up, as long as you aren't reliant on medication making it across the channel.

6 hour queues on Friday at eurotunnel simply because some air conditioning units broke down. There was no extra capacity on cross channel ferries. We operate at capacity so much of the time at ports and airports and anything that disrupts that is going to cause issues.

HarveySchlumpfenburger · 29/07/2018 18:27

well, given the government are now going to hold on to the technical notices until the end of August, rather than drip feed them one each week I expect things will calm down for a short while.

I’m not sure whether that’s a better idea or a worse idea.

OhYouBadBadKitten · 29/07/2018 18:27

Actually in the 70s my Mum did need to go without food in order to feed us kids. It wasn't roses then.

Seasawride · 29/07/2018 18:30

I have a sneaky suspicion Brexit caused that air conditioning failure myself Wink

Indeed Rousette Wink

Baloon

You need either more alcohol in your life or less. Not sure which Wink

StealthPolarBear · 29/07/2018 18:31

She was just being hysterical oybbk. It must have been the hunger

Toooldtobearsed · 29/07/2018 18:44

To be fair, i do know of women going hungry during the miners strike @StealthPolarBear , wrong timing, i know, but it did happen.

Personally, i did not suffer. Some did.

We can only speak of our personal experience cant we? But i cannot see how having a weeks supply of food and drink will be the difference between life and death.
Six months - then yes, go for it, but a few days?
I live very rurally now. It is not unusual for us to have no power for a day or two, and if snowed in, no access to shops for a few days. We not only survive, we live.

StealthPolarBear · 29/07/2018 18:48

And insulin? Will diabetics be OK without insulin for a few days? Lots of people seem sure that "they" will sort it out and any worry is ridiculous.

StealthPolarBear · 29/07/2018 18:49

And I'll just mention y2k again before someone else leaps on gleefully to remind us

Toooldtobearsed · 29/07/2018 18:55

I think things will be seriously crap.
Food shortages, expensive fresh food, a domplete change from the easy, cheap shopping experience we have now.
However, i do not believe anyone will starve to death, die from a lack of medication, or suffer the ill effects of contaminated water (having seen posts about water purification tablets.....).
I DO think life post Brexit will be pretty shitty for a while. I DO NOT think Marshal Law will be applied and that people will die in the 100's.
I DO think that some people will take advantage of the situation and that riots, looting and general public disorder will rear its ugly head.

It is a sad time.

FinallyHere · 29/07/2018 18:56

Im doing absolutely nothing to prepare,p (yet) but its really not like it was for the millennium bug.

@KC225 I wonder if any of them remember the millennium bug - when planes would drop out of the sky, when generators would stop and nuclear reacfora would over heat.

I remember the millennium bug, i was part of a project team of some 50 specialists, alongside lots of other teams, working for one Bank, over two years, to identify the possible problems in the bank's systems caused by the year end rolling over from 99 to 00, which would appear to be 100 years earlier rather than one year later, as usually happens at a year end.

Our part alone spent one hundred working years finding, fixing and testing those fixes. In the end, we had found everything that could have caused problems, so that, on new years eve, It all went smoothly exactly because we had put so much work in, exactly because we were so well prepared.

That was just one bank, one team. Brexit is so much less well defined, than the millennium bug, and I,m rally not seeing that many people involved in preparations.

extinctspecies · 29/07/2018 18:59

Did someone say there will be a shortage of HRT?

Because if I can't get my patches, I probably will commit murder. Starting with Jacob Rees-fucking-Mogg.

Buteo · 29/07/2018 18:59

The majority of retail supply chains have between one and four weeks of stock, with suppliers tending to hold higher levels of stock than retailers. For fresh produce, stock levels can sometimes be only 24 hours or less.

The UK imports £10 billion of fruit and veg annually so if there is disruption to the supply chain that's where the empty shelves will be.

quizqueen · 29/07/2018 18:59

It's people stockpiling which will cause shortages, not BREXIT. If our farmers have some problems with their exports while tariffs are being sorted then there will just be more for the home market. No one makes anyone buy foreign imports so buy British instead and support our country's producers.

One reason I'm a Brexiteer is the way the EU has treated this country like a cash cow for years. That's all they really care about so that French farmers and German manufacturers mainly can be subsidized at the expense of the likes of us and countries like Greece who had loans thrown at them knowing they would never be able to repay them.

The original trade organisation before the Common Market morphed into the EU was set up by ex Nazis ( check out its history, if you don't believe me). They failed to take over Europe by war so planned to do it through the backdoor by controlling trade. The first countries to join wanted a totally free trade area but the Germans supported by the French wanted to protect their industries and farmers so decided to charge fees so it became a customs union and then a political organisation instead. This has got more controlling, greedy and corrupt as the years have rolled by while grabbing more and more power from individual countries.

We are well out of it. Other member states will follow eventually. They are just scared and biding their time to see how the UK copes. Countries like Hungary and the Czech Republic are refusing to obey EU rules including taking their 'allocation' of migrants. Italy is fed up of being the dumping ground for those who enter illegally across the Mediterranean They are Catholic/Christian countries and want to stay that way. The Eastern European countries escaped from the Soviet block only to find themselves caught under a difference sort of control.

Before the Referendum I never heard anyone say a good word about the EU, then suddenly half the country turned into Remainers. It is actually the Remainers who don't know the true facts, not those who voted Leave. Many, like myself, have been watching and waiting since the last referendum in 1975 when the same doom mongering persuaded the UK to vote to stay. This time the internet has opened people's eyes up the truth of what will happen if we stay in EU. Despite the media, big business, the world of entertainment, the government even the former President of the USA making all sorts of threats, democracy managed to secure a vote to leave. Unfortunately, these same people ( not the current POTUS) are preventing it being the success it could be.

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