Yes bigkiteflying either people forget or aren't aware of how it was.
My parents were both from big poor families (Catholics) and they and their siblings born late 40's/50's. Both my grans were intelligent, practical women, one a professional cook and I had several discussions on how they managed (they didn't always and went without meals themselves and tried to avoid the kids doing without if at all possible but again didn't always manage it).
When I first went veggie I was very surprised my mum knew about how to do soya mince! Turns out she'd used it to bulk out meat mince when her and my dad were skint just after having my sister - I was sworn to secrecy even nearly 20 years later!
When I went through a very skint period myself as a Lp student, my mum was full of tips I wouldn't have thought of. (I still had times I went without, this was when if you had an ex that SHOULD have been paying maintenance and were on benefits the maintenance was deducted from your benefits but if they paid late or not at all you were stuffed! This was only early 2000's too so I suspect there's a fair few Lp on here who were in same position as me then that remember that)
"Graphista you forgot about it solving the obesity crisis" you're right I'm addressing it in a separate post where I'm adding to that list
Mommarodge see point 8 in list addition
"Palaver reminds me of a group of students who all laughingly proclaim a total lack of revision only to turn in 9 A* a few months later - you sure they aren't all secretly stockpiling and just not telling you?" So true! We're especially unlikely to be telling those loudly saying they're NOT stockpiling in case SHTF & they decide to raid our stocks!
My mum was telling me earlier her neighbours have turned half their garden over to growing veg in last year and they've been asking her for tips on preserving.
"Could we eat the groundhogs? I bet they taste a bit like haggis" oh don't! I forgot burns night & dd was not impressed!!
"Those scaremongering snowflake bastards in the Army with their piles of avocados and Prosecco" 😂😂 most squaddies would be perfectly capable of foraging & many make their own alcohol anyway - damn sight more potent than prosecco 😂
My family are army my dad ABOUT A YEAR AGO heard from old army buddies that they were starting to prep, in a conversation he said if it hits the news there's any preparations being made for civil unrest THEN it's bad. Because the army to a degree is ALWAYS prepared for unlikely events like droughts, power cuts etc when the govt starts actively telling them to then it's bad!
"It reminds me of all the panic during the preparation for the millennium" see point 4 in my list
Milktraylimebarrel - and those farmers that supply/run the farm shop have their own family to think of, you really think they won't prioritise them first? If anything they're likely to keep as much of their produce for themselves as possible! As for loyalty! So naive - they may need money for other items themselves which may well have risen in price so if they have 2 customers 1 "loyal" and one offering to pay 3/4/5 times more who do you think they'll sell to?!
"Why on earth would people stock up on loo rolls?" We don't have the wood or the infrastructure to make enough of our own. The majority of wood pulp used to make our loo roll comes from Sweden I believe - an eu country.
"I'm not picky about food, so I will probably just buy a large bag of strong flour, some yeast, and some vitamin tablets." hello impacted bowel!
"If food runs out we will just have to survive on home made bread and jam and whatever food is produced in the UK. We have a wealth of dairy farms so butter and milk should be OK. We have fruit and veg grown here, albeit a bit of a limited selection at certain times of year" see points 1,2,5 & 6 on my list
"Mind you, I'm overweight, so I always joke that I could probably survive about six months without eating anyway." See point 8 on list additions
"I'm worried about people whose short term medical requirements will cause them stress though. I think the government needs to be more reassuring to those with specific life-maintaining needs. If there's even a gnats whiskers chance of compromising someone's health they need to have plans." I'm asthmatic and on medication it's physically DANGEROUS to stop cold turkey, I have loved ones on life saving daily medication - we've been asking Drs and pharmacists for MONTHS what's going to happen nobody bloody knows!
"Also, why don't people try making their own pasta? Hate the stuff myself but went on a course recently which included making our own - easy!" It is - just one slight problem - we can't really grow durum wheat in this country which is needed to make the right flour. If you used other flour types to make pasta it'd just turn to mush!
"this is actually a complete disgrace that we are in this mess. No matter which way you did or will vote this is shameful." I have friends & family living in Europe, USA, Canada, aus, South Africa, Mexico... The U.K. Is being seen as a total laughing stock because of how our politicians are NOT handling this! The ones in Europe have had to spend time & sometimes considerable expense to ensure they can stay living with their European husbands and children and working there, and many of them weren't even allowed to bloody vote on the damn thing! Even the expats living outside the eu have obtained eu passports if they were eligible, mostly Irish, in order to continue to have easy travel for business reasons to eu countries. It's a fucking farce! Without a funny punchline!
"but the level of smug let-them-eat-cakery from some posters on this thread is really pretty repellent." This threads actually been pretty tame in that regard. I've seen far worse on other brexit threads & don't even get me started on benefits/food bank ones!!
"I don't think there will be any sort of lack of food - it'll just be more expensive, I reckon." Wow and here we have a "let them eat cake" post - millions are ALREADY struggling in food poverty in this country or just about avoiding it. Great if YOU can afford to pay £50 for a loaf of bread I can't!
"trees - which we do not grow in sufficient quantities" we don't generally grow the right trees in this country either.
"Graphista
you ever thought of going into politics?" In my sillier moments 😂.
In reality nobody would vote for a middle aged, mentally ill, socialist, feminist, bisexual, vegetarian teetotal, lapsed Catholic with some serious skeletons in the closet! (Nothing evil but would scare off most pensioners/conservative thinkers I know). 😂😂
"Well I just can't wait for all the threads where you clever people can congratulate yourselves on being so very right."
If WE'RE wrong it's harmed nobody, inc us and may result in a rise in donations to food banks in April. I bloody hope I'm wrong! It'll save me money & my anxiety will reduce shedloads!
If YOU'RE wrong there could be panic buying, starvation & issues with meds leading to serious illness (yet more pressure on the nhs) or even death, riots, looting, (and the police & armed forces have been cut to the bone so not much hope of their controlling it), we could be on the brink of a civil war!
Because unlike global economically unpredictable shortages (like the depression or oil issues) or shortages due to war with other countries, this is self inflicted, with almost half the country never bloody wanted it!!
Totopoly - genuinely interested how old you are. Are you old enough to have lived through Thatcherism?
"I don't actually think you're allowed to stockpile prescriptions?" Depends on the med. controlled drugs you can't but others you can. But the nhs also needs to be practical and avoid patients having stuff they then lose. Mine are all in a box anyway I'm on that bloody many!! My dads would fill a small suitcase even just 6 weeks supply!
"Well, those people who voted for brexit asked for all of this" many of us likely to be the worst affected DIDN'T!
Personally I'd be all for the govt reintroducing rationing and putting those who DID on half rations! But then I'd put certain politicians on 1/4 rations!
Re renew I'm wary of single policy parties and I'm DEFINITELY wary of one mainly peopled by ex tories!
The tories haven't changed just people forgot or chose not to acknowledge what they're really about and always were. They're the party of the wealthy and of large business owners, always have been always will be. They'll NEVER be interested in serving ordinary working class people let alone the very poor! Why do you think the Labour Party was created in the first place?!
Browneyes77 see points 1,2,5,6 & 9
We are only 60% "self sufficient" - and that's considered an optimistic assessment! If we take that in terms of how many can be fed that leaves nearly 27 MILLION people not getting fed!
"If I were going to stock pile anything it would be Wine. But as I like Californian wine, I shouldn't have any issues there" as I posted upthread, wine from outside the Eu tends to initially be shipped to the eu to larger countries to be bottled and then redistributed to the smaller countries after that.
"If there are shortages of certain foods we will just eat other ones." There isn't enough "other ones" to go around.
"Cadbury’s is in the UK
Where in the UK does chocolate grow" or sugar for that matter.
"Just how many products that people are stockpiling actually come in from Europe? There is a whole other world out there you know peeps!" Yes and currently food etc from non-eu countries come to us...via the eu & via trade agreements we have with them AS EU MEMBERS! Geez even just look at a map! We trade with Europe cos they're the nearest! The further a product has to travel the more it costs for freight costs alone!
The govt haven't even bothered trying to seriously set up trade deals with non eu countries!
"Do you live in the middle of nowhere? ( no offence ) I’m just surprised that anyone in the UK is constantly preparing for weeks of no food?"
Plenty of parts of the U.K. ARE Indeed VERY rural and subject to difficulties getting supplies in. I'm just across the water from certain scots islands, during NORMAL conditions - no weather issues etc - many of the islanders do a monthly trip to my nearest town by boat to stock up at the supermarket. They stock up 2-3 months worth every oct/November in case they can't get across in rough seas. We were completely snowed in for 4 days last year, and I'm supposedly on a main road! Not even snow ploughs could get through. My mum lives on top of a hill and is snowed in most winters. Much of the highlands & islands, rural Wales, rural Cornwall, Yorkshire moors areas etc are similar.
"We had lorries stuck on motorways" a motorway near me emergency services including mountain rescue had to attend to a pregnant lady that got stuck (frankly why SHE was the one out driving to the shop instead of her man is a whole relationships board thread!) and she started getting concerned she'd gone into labour.
I wouldn't necessarily have called myself a prepper but due to never being well off I've always bought items I know I'll use in bulk if I can when they're on offer, silversurfer I think I'm right in thinking you're older than me? I'm 46. And even I remember 70's flour & sugar shortages, regular power cuts (so I always have candles & matches/lighters in)
I was with my ex through the millennium and he's a true city boy. He scoffed at my prepping then "just in case" until his boss (he was army at the time and his boss had experience of living in places where food, even clean water could often be scarce, he was also old enough to remember post WWII rationing) said he should be glad he's married to someone so sensible! We were in a fairly rural location at the time where power cuts were common. Boss said to him wherever he & his family were they always had emergency supplies - mainly things like bottled water, candles, matches, camping stove, batteries, a good first aid kit... But also items particular to wherever they were at the time. He told ex they'd only needed to use it occasionally but he'd rather have it & not need it than need it & not have it. Ex changed tune & was then glad to hump crates of water into spare room!
My family are scots and I have heard many anecdotes about when they've been cut off by snow, floods, had power cuts due yo location - where my mum is still can't get ch 5 or decent internet! Even her landline goes down fairly regularly and mobile coverage is shite!