Preparedness in the UK - or lack of

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AIBU to wonder why the UK is not recommending preparedness?

An increasing number of countries in the EU now officially recommend basic preparedness - storing water, food, hygiene products and medicine for a few days. But the UK - nothing. Why? I would think the UK would be one of the more obvious countries to be attacked in the event of war, given its high profile status is politics and NATO. I also understand that the military is actively preparing for WW3 on the basis it is seen as very likely.

Are you preparing?

“Military actively preparing for WW3.” Source please.

The military are constantly preparing for the next war.

it’s literally part of their job.

I've been prepping for small emergencies since Brexit, but prepping for war is pretty much impossible. You can only do so much then you'd be just as vulnerable as everyone else.

There's a lot of talk of war lately especially in Europe but I don't know how seriously to take it, doesn't seem likely Russia would attack the whole EU and beyond. Still, who knows.

The uk needs to prepare more - good and fuel supplies

but that costs and so it’s blocked

I have two friends who are high up in the armed forces and the navy. Both said the same. Apparently the current prediction is 2029 and they are making arrangements accordingly.

But it's also consistent with what military figures have been saying in the news and in government policy documents for a while now. A couple of examples:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cpqnlxr43zdo

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c035d05je2jo

Regardless though, other countries are - as I said - officially making preparedness recommendations.

There was a preparedness leaflet a while back

The guidance in places like Denmark is to ensure you have the ability to survive for a couple of days without help to allow the state time to mobilise official help, and have access to communications, especially in the event of key infrastructure like water, electricity and phone networks being down.

True, but do you think individual households ought to be preparing too? Or just the government?

But there isn't any communication if both electricity and phone networks are down. Many homes don't even have a landline. I genuinely don't think we can do much other than maybe have some bottled water and make sure babies have formula in.

I should imagine many people have enough to eat for a couple of days even if it's bread or (cold) soup. If they haven't then they probably don't have the money to stockpile.

Utter nonsense.

https://prepare.campaign.gov.uk/get-prepared-for-emergencies/

The recommendation in other countries is to have long term storable and easily preparable food in the house for 3 days. We tend to have mainly fresh food so wouldn't normally have more than a couple of cans of tuna. Water is a big one too - apparently it's 3ls per person, per day, so approx 36l stored. Basically what you would need for some days without access to shops or services.

Re comms, a wind up radio would do the trick as radio communications are more resilient. Or some kind of solar power bank to ensure you can access your phone (assuming no electrics but still emergency mobile networks).

If the advice is only to prepare food, water and medicine for "a few days" than I don't really see why the government needs to do any shit stirring to alert people of this. Most people will have a couple of bottles of water and food in the cupboard to last them a few days. Those who don't are likely struggling anyway, war or no war.

It doesn't take much to cover the next few days or much space. I keep cartons of UHT milk, some four packs of tomatoes and beans, and enough flour & yeast for a few weeks bread. The contents of the freezer would keep us going for a week even without power.

I'm lucky that, being rural we have a well so water would not be an issue (would need boiling) and we have a wood burner & plenty of logs.

Blimey, we haven't had one of these threads for a while 😂

Surely most households have 'a few days' worth of stock at any given time.

Ah, I'd not seen this! Doesn't seem well publicised.

Genuinely just curious as to why that might be. Why the UK government is taking such a different approach to others.

Another month, another I know people high up in the military, why aren’t we preparing for war thread 🙄

Yes it's very useful not to need to rush to the shops if infrastructure goes down, if you can survive without doing that for a week or more. I do think everyone should prep something, even if it's only 3 days worth.

Who on earth defines 3 days as “long term storage”??
The culture in the uk is weekly shop, the majority of people will have more than 3 days of food available at any given time.

Just get a water butt and a filtration straw. Thankfully we are a rainy country filled with streams and other fresh water sources. Very few people would die if they couldn’t eat much for 3 days and those that would likely already have food stored.

90% of Britain has more than 3 days food in the house at any one time I’d imagine. I don’t know anyone with empty cupboards all the time

What makes you say that? Again, genuinely curious.

I am in no way trying to "shit stir", but given the state of the world it just doesn't seem that far out to think we might end up in some kind of conflict at some point. Historically post WW2 has been one of the most peaceful periods in the whole of human history and politically things are unstable.

To the other PP I find it odd that given advice on preparedness if the government sees a genuine risk is considered shit stirring. Surely it's better than not saying anything?

Maybe they still remember covid days and toilet paper stockpiling? As I said, there is no need for the government to create a panic when most households have "a few days" worth of supplies anyway.
Maybe people of Europe behave differently to Brits. I don't remember my parents ever saying that they couldn't buy toilet paper when the lockdown hit in their country of residence.

It’s an interesting point. I heard a fascinating piece on the radio yesterday about how other countries are preparing their galleries and museums to move and maintain antiquities in the event of a war rather than a flood or fire. Throwing a blanket over priceless artefacts and sticking them in an old mine or underground station will ruin them forever and apparently the countries closer to Russia are spending a lot of money on how it can be done properly, locations, trial runs etc.

If that’s the thinking on stuff you’d hope and expect they’re taking similar measures to protect their people and prepare their people to care for themselves.

We’ve got bottled water, a pantry with plenty of long life stuff like beans and a small stove in the attic, cash, wind up radio and wind up torches. We can’t stockpile asthma meds which would quickly become an issue.