To be genuinely concerned about the next few years

[YellowDuck1]

Or have I been spending too much time online?

I am the sort to bury my head in the sand/avoid the news as I find it quite difficult to be so out of control. However I still seem to end up seeing a lot of it.. How we are going to be impacted because of everything that’s unfolding in Iran.

Should we be prepping? Stockpiling?

Agreed that economically it is looking bleak. I am stocking up our pantry with non-perishables when Lidl have offers on or the 10% off on a shop is available. I’m not a prepper per se, however there is no harm in it if food prices are going to go up- 1/3rd of fertilisers for food production go through the Hormuz Strait. I will also be trying to save as much money as possible by putting savings into ISAs with the best interest rates in an effort to offset other rising costs.
I don’t think there is a reason to be downhearted about things out of our control, however if you can prepare for the economic shock all the better.

I don't think so. We've got unhinged leaders of both Russia and the USA. China is also becoming a dominant superpower in terms of economy and military. Even if the UK isn't directly impacted by war in terms of military damage/invasion, our way of life and economy could easily be badly impacted by trade route blockages etc/. as seem during covid, the suez blockage and now the oil tankers being blocked. The cost of oil is rocketing which means shipping goods from China to the UK will be more expensive, plus carriage/delivery of goods, plus food production costs due to fertiliser cost increases, etc.

National debt is close to the highest in living memory. It's decades since we've had a surplus, so the debt is just getting bigger and bigger, even in Gordon Brown's "good times". We spend more on interest than education.

AI is looming which WILL mean even more unemployment, on top of the current increasing unemployment, very high youth unemployment.

More and more people reliant on benefits, fewer proportion of population actually working and paying taxes. More and more elderly people compared with workers, meaning more costs of pensions, healthcare, social care, etc.

The UK is reliant on other countries for most things these days, food, power, oil, etc., so we're very fragile to World events. Go back a few decades and we were more self sufficient - yes, not fully self sufficient, we never have been, but certainly not as reliant on other countries as we are today!

Everything is heading in the wrong direction with no glimmers of hope at all.

I really hope you are right

I was born in 1958. TheI was born in 1958. There have been loads of really tricky/risky/shit times in my life.
This is no worse than others.

This is far worse. In 1958 the catastrophic effects of climate change and AI were not even known about. Never mind the proliferation of weapons and globalisation.

I was planning to retire later this year or early next year and have been talking to potential buyers of my business. But over Easter, I gave a lot of thought to things generally, and I'm pulling out of the sale process and going to carry on working for another 3-5 years, just to "future proof" myself and savings/investments, etc. If I sold now, I'd be relying on investments and pensions, which could fall massively if there was any worsening in the UK and Worldwide economy. At least if I keep working, I can add to my savings/pensions rather than draw from them, so have some protection from inflation or asset value falls etc.

I’m usually the sort to use up everything we have before doing another shop. I think I will have to start having a small stock of things instead

I was born in '55.
This is way worse.
But worse than the fact that it's worse, is the fact that most of it has been predictable for a long time.
Climate change - known about for about 100 years.
Putin - in plain sight since last century.
Etc.
Politics suffers from short termism which arises out of the need to be elected and therefore popular.
For the first time in human history we have a situation where almost everyone can inform themselves about almost anything, so short termism is now doomed.
We are where we are and it ain't pretty.
Prep as much as you can is my advice.

@KidsLifePathQuestion

Everyone should have a prep cupboard for any kind of emergency, be it the national grid going down or flooding. Here's the government Prepare website: https://prepare.campaign.gov.uk/get-prepared-for-emergencies/

I've always been inclined to prepare for the worst. Nothing extreme, but we've always have enough in the house to last a while in case we can't go shopping etc. I think it stems from the 70s when I was a child and we had power cuts, the 3 day week, shortages, preparing for petrol rationing etc., and my parents did a fair bit of "prepping" with always having candles to hand, paraffin heaters, plenty of tinned/dry foods etc. When we bought our home and got married in the late 90s, it was almost automatic for us to buy some "prepping" stuff just in case, such as candles, battery torches, gas camping stove, etc - we just bought that kind of thing as we shopped for everything else we needed for our first home. With food/drink, we always have at least two of everything tinned or packeted and when we run out of something and go onto the next tin/packet, we put it on the shopping list to keep stocks up. We've got frozen bread and milk in the freezer and a chest freezer in the garage which is full of all kinds of frozen stuff. We also keep the cars quite full of fuel, by filling them up whenever they get close to half.

Worked well during Storm Desmond several years ago when our entire city lost electricity for four days! Shops were all closed so you couldn't buy anything. Petrol stations were closed so people couldn't put petrol in their cars to drive to nearby towns to buy stuff. Telephone was down. Luckily we had a couple of old battery radios so could get at least some local information from the local radio that was still functioning via a generator. Cooked food and heated water via the gas camping stove. If anything Storm Desmond increased our "prepping" and we are now ready for the same happening again, or something longer and more damaging, as far as you can go without going full on tinfoil hat crazy! The modern "just in time" stock deliveries etc are very high risk and it doesn't take much to bring it all crashing down.

We’re reaching environmental tipping points for climate change. By the time you notice the effects on supermarket shelves it will be too late.

Prepping at most people's level is just something we do to soothe ourselves and give a false sense of control. But largely unnecessary.

In a small 'emergency', you'll be saving yourself some minor, short lived inconvenience. Meh.
In a serious situation like extended major society breakdown, you don't need to stockpile, it will be total bedlam and the strongest and most violent will win.
In a very serious situation like a nucleur war you'll be dead or dying a slow death from the poisoned air and your bottled water and 14 tins of soup will be the last thing on your mind.

Basic life (i mean basic like being able to afford to travel to your job, put food on the table and heat your home and pay for basic hygiene, dentists etc and cover repair bills for car, boiler home etc..) will become unaffordable in the very near future.

It's like a bloody apocalypse and every day I feel relieved that I havent had any children.

YANBU. The whole place is fucked. I am just thinking if I can just make it to the end of my little life still affording to live, then pop my cloggs. Don't think beyond it. It doesnt bear thinking about.

Well this thread has cheered me up no end 🤣 (should not have stupidly clicked on it)

What part has cheered you up exactly?

That was sarcasm. None of it has.

Yeah I know what you mean. I think the last few weeks I’ve been burying my head in the sand tbh. It really is quite depressing

Same and 99% of thing the press like to scaremonger about never end up happening.

I don’t blame you. I’ve had to limit my news to a certain extent which is why I’m stupid for clicking on this thread. I think we need to be realistic but need to draw the line at the scaremongering - problem is knowing which is which.

Forecourt prices have gone up yes, but @YellowDuck1obviously doesn't remember September 2000 when domestic protests caused forecourts to run dry up and down the country.

I’m a similar age to you two. It’s far, far worse now. We were concerned about nuclear war and I remember the Aldermaston marches. I was alive at the time of the Cuban crisis but not old enough to understand or remember. Those crises were about threats and people were genuinely scared of what those threats meant for our lives. People, some people, were worried about the environment but were dismissed and derided as yoghurt weaving, sandal wearing tree huggers.

Unfortunately those threats and fears have become reality, in many cases they’re much worse than was predicted and it’s happening faster. The difference now is that the world wide capacity for self destruction has increased enormously and disaster is actually happening. I had not anticipated that vested interests would actively work to suppress and oppose actions to address the problems. That’s why it’s worse.

No I don’t as I was 5 🤭

Yes that’s the problem isn’t it. Being realistic - We were planning to move house. We have our house on the market currently. I don’t think I will be taking the risk of increasing my mortgage right now. There’s just so much uncertainty. It could all materialise to nothing but what if it does.

If you are going to be increasing your mortgage and it leaves you with little buffer for other increases, then I probably wouldn’t at the moment - but that’s my opinion. I’m sure others will come ahead and tell you to go ahead but I’d rather have the extra money just in case and see what happens over the next few months.

I'm also in my sixties and was at university when Reagan was inaugarated as President of the USA at the height of the Cold War - we had an 'End Of the World Party' ' on the day - the poster was a spoof of Gone With the Wind with Reagan and Thatcher, with the byeline - 'she promised to follow him to the end of the earth - he promised to take her there'.

I was also alive but too young to remember the Cuban missile crisis, but I think that's still the closest the world's ever been to a full-scale nuclear war (apart from the time there was a false alarm which a Russian bravely chose to ignore)

https://www.theguardian.com/food/2026/apr/04/foods-to-stockpile-emergency-store Some more info here on things to prep. Other countries' governments seem to be giving more guidance than ours is.

It's not that we're suddenly going to get nuked (and if we were, prepping won't help) but there are and always have been risks such a shocks to food, energy and water supply that it's sensible to prepare for. At the very least you should have water for a few days, long life food that you can eat uncooked (tinned beans etc), a way to light your house and charge your phone, and don't let any regular prescription meds run down to nothing.

It’s just classic British government isn’t it. Zero guidance, it’s really unhelpful