Doradoo - interested to know what country you're in.
"Most people in Britain is used to society functioning as it has for the last 70 years" to be honest we've had periods of shortages even in my lifetime (46) even my memory so it seems more a case of having forgotten - as I said upthread just last year the weather caused major issues certainly in much of rural Scotland which seems to have been quickly forgotten.
I've just been talking to dd about it and she was a bit 
and was asking why I was planning this - during our conversation it occurred to me apart from last year (which admittedly shook her a little) she's too young to remember even the petrol shortages of (to me) a few years ago.
I remember the flour & sugar shortages (my dad only drinks tea and has 4 spoons a cuppa - this was a source of real concern in our house), just been googling for articles to share with dd and reminded the 3 day week was due to energy conservation too so I'm now wondering if that will be something that may happen again.
She was shocked when I said about army have been assigned stockpiling duties and are on standby for any unrest. It was her reaction led me to realise she has no memory of anything like this (and hopefully won't) there'd been a few brawls locally last year in the supermarkets when the stocks started coming back in again, customers arguing among themselves or with staff as there was "rationing" policies in place and some customers were trying to buy eg 12 loaves - I said "that was a short term situation that people knew wouldn't last, imagine if we've weeks of shortages and no end in sight! People will start to panic" she 'got it' then.
"When I was growing up we had a chest freezer and the meat would be bought for a few months at a time" yep my parents did this too. They'd both grown up VERY poor (I mean kids missing meals, shoes falling apart poor) and understandably did what they could to guard against low food supplies. They'd order a whole cow or lamb and have the butcher sort it for them (apparently this was cheaper than buying even at bejam), they'd also buy sacks of veg (potatoes, carrots etc) at farm shops and dad would grow stuff too (though this is the worst time of year for this - another way this govts fucked up! Shitty timing!), he'd also fish and on at least one occasion we even had rabbit (which I suspect was poached). He's also quite knowledgable on foraging, which mushrooms,berries are safe etc he taught us but I don't remember it well enough to risk it with certain things.
I haven't discussed it with her but dds bffs mum & dad are outdoorsy, camping types and I've noticed on their FB feed they've been doing little things like teaching their younger ones fishing and foraging recently and I'm wondering if it's related at least partly to brexit.
"Oddly also, I seem to have missed the floods of enthusiastic pledges to NOT prepare" funny that eh. I've noticed all but one of the leavers (a relative very stubborn, still giving it "brexit means brexit" and "no deal fine by me" - yet I suspect will be one of the most vocal complainants if SHTF!) on my FB feed have gone VERY quiet on the subject in recent weeks and I've even noticed a few comments re concerns about meds.
Wow! I'm forever throwing eggs out (we go through phases of loving them & then go off them - meal fatigue?) are they defo safe to freeze? And how do you defrost safely?
"Lets just eat the politicians." Just another way JRM is useless! No meat on them bones!
"My DDs' dad thinks there'll be no noticeable difference to anything after brexit but then he always was an idiot." Oh my, that just made me thing of my ex! He's ret'd army - but recently enough he could well be called back up if they decide to do so if needed to deal with civil unrest. Not that he'd be much use he's a spineless git who'll happily let others fight his battles for him. 5 kids in that household and if anyone's prepping in that household I'm willing to bet it won't be him. His parents are older than mine they were wartime kids so well remember rationing, their kitchen is always very well stocked and they do a lot similar to mine re sacks of potatoes etc
"All is completely normal and well, as we said in 1939." Yep sep 1939 when I suspect the ancestors of the "there's no need for prepping" people were also convinced "it'll all blow over by Christmas"... 15 years later rationing ended!
"DH’s business is providing what could be seen as a ‘luxury’, so I can see our family income plummeting rapidly after March." Yep. Think that's true for a lot of luxury business sadly. I've noticed very little on how takeaways, restaurants & cafes will be affected. One of the few industries still doing ok where I live and I can see this leading to a lot of those businesses collapsing.
"Why don't you just eat locally sourced food if Brexit causes shortages?"
Sigh - I think mn needs a brexit faq!
The U.K. does not produce anywhere near enough for us to be self sufficient on this little island. Add in last years weather fluctuations and we've actually LESS than usual! In addition it's more expensive. I'm on benefits I'd love to but organic local produce or even just local but it's WAY out of my price range. Even many families with 2 full time workers are only just about surviving now!
This govt MAYBE could have supported our farmers to increase our production at least slightly IF they'd got their arses (and brains) in gear 2 years ago - but they didn't!
"(although I'm sure someone somewhere in GB produces pasta)." Even if they do - where they gonna get the flour? There's only 2 small farmers that grow the right wheat for this because it doesn't grow well in our climate.
That time of year in our climate is NOT a harvest period! That's why even hundreds of years ago people would preserve foods - to get them through the times when they weren't available to harvest.
It's really NOT just one food type its EVERYTHING.
"but really the government should be well aware that this is an issue and stockpiling themselves if they think there is going to be problem" it's only in about the last 3-4 months to my knowledge that they've even bothered to check with the experts what the situation is! What drugs affected etc. Piss poor planning galore. Actually little to no planning!