AIBU to think my friend is overdoing emergency stockpiling?

[bagpuss90]

I get that we have been advised to stock up on essentials, though I think it will encourage panic buying. I will probably get a few days worth of stuff at some point . My friend however has, at least in my opinion gone ott about it. She’s stocking up a six month supply of food. She’s bought head torches, a camping gas stove and various other stuff. She thinks I’m being naive …Am I missing something here ?

Not even water and alternative cooking solutions so you can put the kettle on in an emergency? Think of the cups of tea!!

Just in case anyone is lulling themselves into a false sense of security...
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/sep/21/super-el-nino-temperature-record

Why do you think that? If the jug/jerrycan etc is food grade and clean then the water will be fine. It loses oxygen but you can just give it a shake and it reoxygenates.

Or you can add 8 drops of bleach to a gallon of water. Obviously not scented or coloured bleach. Just plain household bleach. You then let it sit for an hour. Its effectively what water purifier tablets do.

So flood threats if you’re in the UK, since the ground is dry after the hot summer? And storms.

Thinking of the extremely weird and bad trend in the UK with plastic grass. Nowhere for the water to go.

Twas me I believe 😅

FAA imposes ground stops at Boston and New York-area airports

Boston Logan
John F. Kennedy
LaGuardia
Newark Liberty
Teterboro
Philadelphia
Westchester

Technical outage apparently.

So that's Scotland, NI and Northern England and a large part of the American East coast today. After the London outage two weeks ago.

Also Trump just announced sanctions so that any country that allowed an Iranian aircraft to refuel would be get tariffed.

Meanwhile Andy is off to meet Donald in the US.

At the UN conference in NYC

Which the Iranian president is also due to attend.

You know NYC where all the planes can't land. And Iranian airlines can't refuel.

And the nato chiefs of defence just met in Copenhagen.

www.nato.int/en/news-and-events/articles/news/2026/09/19/nato-chiefs-of-defence-in-copenhagen-met-for-the-military-committee-conference

This from Tribune Populaire on X. (Translated from French)

x.com/TribunePop23/status/2101649263407026291

How do you prepare a people to accept war in 10 steps.

1. You designate an enemy. Since the invasion of Ukraine, Russia has been presented as a direct threat to France.

2. You transform the conflict into a moral battle. It’s no longer a matter of interests; it’s Good versus Evil.

3. You change the words. As early as 2022, Macron speaks of a “war economy,” then of “rearmament.”

4. You break the taboos. In 2024, Macron refuses to rule out sending troops to Ukraine. In 2025, 26 countries say they are ready to deploy them after a ceasefire.

5. You increase the budgets. France and Europe are investing hundreds of billions of euros in defense.

6. You prepare the civilians. Europe advises families to have enough supplies to last 72 hours in case of a crisis.

7. You prepare the youth. A voluntary military service begins in the summer of 2026, with a target of 50,000 young people per year by 2035.

8. You talk of sacrifice. The Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces says the country must be ready to “lose its children.”

9. You show your “strength.” July 14, 2026, features the largest military parade ever held on the Champs-Élysées.

10. You silence the doubts. Those who criticize this policy are often accused of being pro-Russian.

All these steps have one thing in common: they prepare minds. And the day a grave decision is made, it will be accepted, because the population will have been gradually accustomed to it. Yet, the Russia presented to us as a threat to all of Europe still can’t manage to win in Ukraine. More than four years after the start of the invasion, it occupies just over 19% of the country. It’s methodical. So a big question arises: if Russia is stalled in Ukraine, why are the French being prepared as if it were at our doorstep?

This sounds very plausable. Nr 3…
But how else would you do it, many (most?) people don’t even seem to understand now. They still go on about covid and toliet paper.

The comment on the country being ready to lose their children chills me.

Same been fully stocked ever since covid, torches, burners etc etc and just rotate so always in date with plenty of time.Need to be where we live and with several kids etc

Apparently workers in the US 'cut a cable' which has fucked East Coast Airspace on one of the most important days of the year.

Poland has urgently postponed Defence Minister Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz’s planned Wednesday visit to the Pentagon following an urgent request from the U.S. side.

Warsaw says new signals from Washington, together with a meeting of NATO chiefs of staff, require urgent action on the security of Alliance members.

Two Polish deputy ministers are instead travelling to Washington for talks with U.S. counterparts and to prepare further agreements on defence cooperation.

This doesn't sound good.

Alex Wickham AT Alexwickham
EXCLUSIVE with @FionamMacDonald

The UK is close to agreeing to provide Saudi Arabia’s military with operational support to counter Houthi fighters, and will lobby other nations to help repel the Iran-backed group

Andy Burnham is minded to offer the Saudi military defensive support after considering requests from Riyadh over the past several days, according to several people familiar with the matter

It would be one of his first significant military decisions since becoming prime minister

Some of the people said it could include things like aerial refuelling. One stressed the importance of the Middle East returning to stability, especially in light of Houthis attacks on Saudi and threats to a key shipping route, the Bab el-Mandeb Strait

Bloomberg reported last week that the UK was considering requests from Riyadh for a range of diplomatic and military support

Burnham has also agreed that the UK government will lobby other nations to also offer support for Saudi Arabia against the Houthis, the people said
(Linked to a Bloomberg article which is paywalled).

Also fairly ominous.

NATO fighters have been scrambled in Latvia after an air alert about a threat in the countries airspace
Oh joy.

Dr Serge Zaka AT SergeZaka
I no longer have the words to describe what is currently happening in France.

The weather forecasts keep pushing back the timeline for the return of rain. Now, almost no significant precipitation is expected across much of the country until October 6.

France's soil moisture index could thus shatter its all-time record for drought, previously held only in the heart of the most extreme summers. Except we'll be late September, or even early October by then. Unprecedented!

And meanwhile, no respite for our forests, our ecosystems, and our agriculture. The soils continue to dry out, plants accumulate stress, and the consequences now stretch far beyond the summer. And this has been going on since May.

France is clearly going through an exceptional crisis.

I'm fairly sure this isn't great either.

France "has no supply issues" with fuels "at this stage," but it must "ensure" it "finds solutions" if the conflict in the Middle East drags on, Economy Minister Roland Lescure said on France Inter.

So it hasn't found a source of replacement diesel yet and they are trying not to shit themselves too much.

Meanwhile Trump is doing press conferences on TV whilst muted because all the US news stations are boycotting him in solidarity with CNN and someone else since he banned them from the press pool.

Oh and there's also this tweet from The Whitehouse. Not unnerving at all

https://x.com/WhiteHouse/status/2102044890733449541

Also. There's a lot going on about the EBS and the press boycott.

The EBS is the Emergency Broadcast System.

This would suggest there's a planned direct to the public bypass of the media by the Whitehouse going on - under the guise of an emergency.

Now history tells us that take over of the media is the key point in a dictator taking over - so if this has legs, this could be a pivotal moment. Certainly the optics do not look good...

Surely Rusdia doesn't have enough children left to loose? Longer term for their population a lot of young men have already died so less possible dad to father the next generation.

Vilnius Airport (Lithuania) has suspended flights due to a drone threat.

Reuters
Zelenskyy met with CIA director Ratcliffe in Ireland whilst both of their planes were refuelling the details of the talk are unknown.

We've all been on a plane flight where we refuel midway haven't we? And then randomly bump into a colleague.

Alex Wickham AT Alexwickham
Andy Burnham confirms Bloomberg story. He’s authorised the UK military to provide defensive support for Saudi Arabia as it counters the Houthis

PM says: “We have received a request from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia for military support, and on the advice of the defence secretary and the foreign secretary, last night I agreed to that request for defensive air to air refueling, and that’s the agreement that we’ve given. That is a time-limited agreement in terms of the assistance that we will provide, but we will keep it under review. It’s defensive support.”

Yesterday the US signed a deal with Belarus to supply potash. Potash is needed to make fertiliser. Canada is the worlds biggest supplier of potash.

So they are going to import it, at great expense from landlocked Belarus through Russia despite sanctions. Just to spite Canada.

Turns out though, there is no potash left. The Belarus president said yesterday that the entire 2026 output of potash is already commited to existing contracts.

Madness.

Total insanity, Trump is doing a lot of harm - he'll go down in history for all the wrong reasons!

There's yet another stockpile thread here, for those of you who haven't seen it and want to see more arguing over why potential ideas.

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/_chat/5580715-your-emergency-suppliesstockpile?page=1

I think that's the 4th or 5th thread now.

I would say that that the message is starting to cut through and there is a general worry out there.

Manchester Airport is not operational currently. AGAIN. This time its a runway lighting issue due to fog. (There has been fog in the area today)

Where I live newspapers are now starting to carefully say that basically they know it is very important for them not to scare people, but at the same time it is also their job to say that right now perhaps we actually should be scared. Scared but united, and think beforehand how we should react in certain situations, because it won’t happen today or tomorrow - but likely very soon.

None of my family seem to care or believe anything is going to happen.

I’ve been buying bits and getting prepared as I can . As when the penny drops I don’t want to be rushing out panic buying.

Im watching The Waregame on Sky it is quite surreal watching actual political figures “meeting “ and discussing these things . Why would they do it what would they gain from doing this. It’s like they are also subliminally warning us .

Im a long time lurker but thought I would post as I’ve nobody else to talk to about this situation.

I really am going to order some stuff today.

Does anyone know how I can keep a chest freezer going as ling as possible?

DD has ARFID and DS is autistic and eat mostly frozen stuff.

Actually I don't even know how I would cook it.

Is it likely gas AND electricity could both be unusable??

Starting to feel quite stressed.

I also mentioned this to extended family this morning and was laughed at. But had the same with Covid. MN gave me the heads up to get supplies in then too whilst they laughed :/

It is all so unimaginable