"UK must actively prepare for war"

[RealPerson]

The government has said, "For the first time in many years, there is a need to prepare for direct threats to the UK homeland, potentially in a wartime scenario"

I have been thinking about a potential nuclear war with people living through it. It seems to be a topic that is no longer categorized as a sci- fi storyline. AIBU ?

Look the British government is constantly preparing for war and to defend itself even if they aren't shouting about it from the rooftops. If they actually comment then read the small print to find out what they are trying to distract from.

Well here is a news link if that is better https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.bbc.com/news/articles/cpqnlxr43zdo.amp

Chernobyl was a nuclear power station it wasn’t hit by a nuclear weapon however did enough damage with far reaching effects so be warned! Not even near us but DGM cat got thyroid cancer because of it and farmers with sheep in Scotland were affected. Never mind the people who lived nearby. These men poncing about threatening things are off their b….y heads.

1. There have been NO nuclear warheads used in Ukraine. None. Not one.

Russia keeps on threatening them in order to scare the West but not one single one, battlefield or other, has been used and nor at this stage are they likely to be used.

2. Russia took over the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant by force in 2022. They have been running in badly and the risks of a problem are higher than before the war, but they not huge. The International Atomic Energy Agency are still monitoring it regularly and allowed in. There have certainly been no nuclear meltdowns or bombs!

3. Unfortunately yes, war may come and it's not because we in the West want it. Russia is preparing for war because it has moved its economy onto a war footing. This is causing a huge economic problem but Putin is sinking everything into winning the war in Ukraine. He seems to be receiving some degree of support from China and has received both military personnel and material from N Korea and a devastating number of drones from Iran.

4. Mark Rutte, Secretary General of NATO, is a steady and non-alarmist career politician who kept the Netherlands on a steady keel for 13 years. He wants peace, but has warned repeatedly that we need to prepare for war because at the moment Europe is woefully unprepared.

Again, he has repeatedly warned that we have to be ready and prepared. In order to prevent Russia invading we need to be strong.

Pistorius, the best German politician, has warned the same. So have many other heavy weight politicians.

5. Russia is massively outproducing the combined European ammunition factories. We are gearing up, but it can't be done in a few months. The political will also needs to be there.

So yes, the UK needs to prepare for war. Because we're in the pre-war stage and quite possibly the only way to stop it is to make sure that we're strong enough that Russia knows it can't win.

And oh yes, Russia is jamming GPS signals to the point that the plane with the President of the European Union, Ursula von der Leyen, had to use backup measures to land.

Russia has also plotted to assassinate defense company heads in Europe (the head of Rheinmetall and others) and has attacked the UK NHS and other internet organisations, leading to breakdowns of systems causing a lot of trouble

https://www.politico.eu/article/nato-official-confirms-russian-plot-kill-european-weapons-chief-armin-papperger/

The UK defense journal have warned that grey zone activities are blurring the lines between peace and war https://ukdefencejournal.org.uk/mps-warn-grey-zone-attacks-now-threaten-all-uk-citizens/

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cxee7317kgmo

I'm afraid that even if, as some naive poster said upthread 'who wants war? I don't want war!' ... it doesn't matter if they want it or not. What matters is if the other person wants it.

I do think the world is a dangerous place currently. I’m in my 50’s and can’t remember ever feeling as nervous as I do now about the future. Seeing the leaders of Russia, North Korea and China cosying up to each other doesn’t look good. But, we can’t do anything about it. We just have to live our best life and what happens will happen…

And I also think that Covid taught us that the Government will not always be there for us if the worst happens. They were scarily clueless, which makes it important that we know how to prepare ourselves, and not be reliant on the government. It will be dog eat dog and every man for himself if the worst happens.

What small scale nuclear warheads are those? I’m former military and follow the news about the war in Ukraine fairly closely. I think I would have heard if tactical nuclear weapons had been used.

Good luck getting people to go and fight. Who the f-ck is going to fight for a country that hates itself, is ashamed of its history and has completely lost its identity? I have a left-wing neighbour who flies a Palestinian flag outside her house. Everyone thinks she’s cool and progressive. If I flew a St George flag or a Union Jack, I’d probably get a brick through my window. I’d certainly get the cold shoulder from several of my neighbours. Why would I fight for that? What would I be fighting for? I no longer have a ‘tribe’. My enemy is the smug, sneering Oxbridge left who have done this to me.

Done what to you?

This is the third time I've accepted that tactical nuclear weapons have not been used.

I'm not going to keep on replying to people who didn't catch up on the thread before letting loose!

(Also, being wrong is not lying. Lying requires intention to deceive.)

Tik tok and you tube..those reliable sources of credible information.
I watched a YouTube video about recordings of Hell deep underground in Russia..so it must be true 🤯

It's just rhetoric in relation to their latest rounds of defense spending, regurgitated on Tik Tok to generate interaction. It doesn't mean we're about to start wiping each other off the map.

Please don't rely on things like this for your news.

Who we off to war with? Didn't they say they were remaking threads? Recycling rhetoric as well as TV progs.

I'll take an ICBM to the face please

Posting something of such enormity without even bothering to check if it's true is, at best, thoroughly irresponsible. There is no way you read that somewhere and your original post stated the "facts" with great confidence. It's good that you have accepted that the information you gave was incorrect but you have taken no responsibility whatsoever for posting the falsehood in the first place - as if it was something that happened to you rather than something you chose to do. Tactical nuclear weapons (even the "little" ones) are not pretty nasty; they're horrific. The sheer horror of the injuries and loss of life from the use of them would have ensured blanket news coverage if it had actually happened. It certainly isn't something you would have needed to reveal on mumsnet because everyone would know about it. Please don't be so blasé about something so horrible in future.

You don't need nuclear weapons to fuck up a country nowadays. Just take out the electrical grid in a way that it can't be repaired quickly and things will fall apart pretty quickly.

They want to go to Ukraine, I assume. I don’t think we should.

We’re already at war. It’s a digital based war. Bot and troll farms in Russia and America and billionaire media owners are working 24/7 to destabilise our country and install their puppet Lord Haw Haw aka Farage so they can take our assets.

Many would say WWIII has already started.
yes we do need to prepare - anything is sticking our head in the sand
For what’s it’s worth, I don’t think it’ll be nuclear but will instead be dirty old fashioned war, enhanced with drones (as per Ukraine)

I think that there was a story a while ago from a high up military person about how the U.K. just doesn’t have capacity for any war due to cuts in staff/equipment. This was near the end of the Tories I believe, but I am not sure much has changed.
I think this ‘prepare for war’ is in the more general sense of the U.K. itself and not for individuals so much. Defence spending needs to be increased to bring us up to scratch, so there would be less money for other things. There has been a thought in government that we can cut defence spends to increase other area spends, as there’s been no real risk of a damaging war, now they’ve realised it wasn’t necessarily a great idea to let the military get so low in numbers and poorly resourced, as whether used in war or not, it leaves us looking quite weak on the world stage particularly to those who may wish to take advantage of that.
I wouldn’t be worrying about war on an average civilian level right now, most impact would be less cash in our pockets, but that’s the trend now anyhow.
We should all always be aware of digital attacks personally and maybe have a bit of supplies in, some written info, but that’s the case anyway whether a breakdown in platforms happens due to bad actor interference or not, is the same result to us effectively.

Every country needs to prepare for war. The world is very unstable currently. It would be a dereliction of duty for any government not to

I grew up during the cold war. If we're going to get nuked, we'll all die. Has anyone seen that amazing, yet highly controversial movie about Sheffield gettihg nuked? We're screwed. Also, see Hiroshima, Nagasaki.

I've not seen that, but on a similar note "Nuclear War: a Scenario" is a fascinating read.

Yes, if we get nuked, that text on your mobile phone isn't going to save you.