AIBU to wonder whether the three day emergency advice is serious?

[Mich1986]

I know I might sound crazy, but is anyone else worrying about all the posts about stockpiling and prepping for 3 days that the government is telling us to do? Is anyone actually taking their advice and buying torches, extra water and wind up radios? I just don’t know whether to take it seriously?

I think the government has been ( unusually for a government!) pretty clear about it.

Be prepared for emergencies, be able to deal with shit yourselves and dont come waa-waaing because your Internet goes down for a bit or it snows and you cant buy milk for a few days or it rains and the trains are cancelled. Sack up and deal with it. We will prioritise the vulnerable. If you can take care of yourself, just get on with it.

Tbh, we should be able to cope with some disruption and have some first aid stuff and emergency supplies in anyway. It's pathetic that we are at a point where people who can take care of themselves in a difficult situation are seemingly unaware that they should.

People need to stop acting like children and seeing the government as mummy and daddy who have to come kiss their booboos and check under the bed for the boogeyman.

I’ll also say that it’s not just about being paranoid and hoarding lots of stuff. If you are reasonably robust and able, being prepared means you’re sorted and can stay out of the way and not be a drain on emergency services if it all goes to shit.

There are lots of people who are vulnerable or who for health or financial reasons, cannot adequately look after themselves. If there is an emergency, resources need to be spent taking care of them, not you.

It’s a bit like when we have a big snowstorm. There are vulnerable people who need to get to hospital for treatment or doctors and nurses who need to get in for a shift. But those people can’t get out because some numpty thought they’d take their 4x4 out for a joyride and got stuck in the hedge and now the road is blocked and emergency services are wasting resources trying to get this moron out the bloody hedge.

Don’t be a drag on public resources. IF you can look after yourself and set yourself up to be self sufficient, you should. Then those limited resources can be directed to your 85 year old neighbour who doesn’t have the means to stock up or cook without power.

This is literally just something you’ve thought up

It's a news article about the government advice. Do you want a government minister to literally hold your hand through this? Here's Wes Streeting telling you to do it https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/other/wes-streeting-orders-britons-to-stockpile-tinned-food-and-bottled-water-amid-russia-war-fears/ar-AA2d2kBM

It was on the BBC news last week. My parents called me to tell me to stock up.

Did you read my post? They have not leafleted, placed and advertising campaign or made a public service announcement.

that’s how you get a public service announcement out. It’s nothing to do with hand holding, it’s basic comms.

believe me, if this was necessary official advice they would be doing the above.

My money is more nudge bollocks in advance of the autumn budget, so we are all just grateful that we aren't on emergency rations when they come for more tax.

I have been really impressed with the messaging on this. It’s not been too much. We haven’t had a run on the shops. It’s been quiet, slow and consistent for months and I think a lot of people have been slowly thinking about it and or stocking up.

Even thinking about it is good.

I have done more thinking than stocking. I have 6 bottles of 2L water and bought an excess of pasta and dried goods (beyond the level I would hold), stocked up the tins (not beyond the normal use level - but just keeping it highly stocked rather than just in time.

But if something happens I am not going to panic about food/ water. We have enough to hunker down in a very unluxurious way and think through what we are doing properly.

& I would immediately fill the bath to the brim with water.

I think in Dec it was already in Italy.
We did final stock up 2 weeks before lockdown because my family abroad went in one already. So it was inevitable.
Then they kept asking, taking a piss, if we had different virus because of all that tp hoarding (ehich eas reported abroad...) ....

Having stuff in made such a massive difference seeing what was happening in shops the first week.

I mean, government ministers doing interviews with national newspapers really ought to count as an advertising campaign. I think it's a soft launch before the real preparedness campaign starts. There are currently strikes in Germany over the return of conscription so to try to brush all this off as scaremongering would be naive.

Yes, I think it has been a drip drip of messaging that has meant that people have been adding bottled water etc to their shop over time rather than a hard campaign that would see panic buying and empty shelves. The pallets of big water bottles at my local Sainsbury's has been obviously going down and been regularly restocked more than usual over the last month, but hasn't run out. I've seen people with water in their trolleys and at the checkouts so it is having an impact.

Just to note this advice is like 2-3 years old. It's just pushed more in news now

MSN? news? 😁

Mr Streeting told The Sun, in an interview on the eve of the Labour Party conference, the request was "just a simple ask" of Britons.

and the same article includes a hyperlink to GB News

He hasn't 'ordered' people to do anything, but the government are launching a preparedness campaign

I don't think giving the advice is suggesting that something will happen imminently where you'll need 3 days of food. It's more that they can't ever say it definitely won't happen, so if it does you'll have an easier time managing a period of time where the gov can't help out as immediately as you need them to

It's just trying to be sensible and pragmatic but it feels like people have taken it as some sort of signal

I have seen people too. I decided not to buy the big bottles.

If something happens which requires me to use this bottled water then I am not worrying about bathing. We can survive no bathing.

And the thing I have been thinking about is an exit plan. In that case I would not want big bottles. Which is why I stuck to 2L.

Good luck with filling the bath. Depends on the issue.

A water main near us got cut last month and we were without water for 11 hours. First we knew was no water... at all.

that's because they are lemmings with the critical thinking skills of a tadpole who believes its an eel and packs its bags for an all-inclusive in the Sargasso

when TikTok feeds them utter bollocks about Binley Chippy being the place everyone needs to be, or Crocs are the best gym footwear, they have no choice other than to obey.... obviously after confirming it with Chat GPT, Daily Mail and their Facebook oracle of choice

Or maybe the lemmings who bang on about the brilliant messaging / gently gently / lack of hand holding for useless people when they have zero clue about the government’s comms strategy?

You need 2.5 litres per person per day for drinking and cooking, so if you have a household of 4, that's two big 5l bottles per day even before you think about washing.

And what are you trying to suggest, that the government don't actually want people to have food and water for emergencies? That Wes Streeting accidentally said it?

How is the view from your land of plenty? How nice not to be aware of poverty

Did it not maybe occur to you that the government website would be a good place to start?
It is all on there.

Of course you need to take it seriously, just don't panic

Raspberries grow easily in the ground.
Blueberries are finicky and only like acid soil.
Strawberries are reasonably easy but not keep on pots.

Very few people are too poor to afford 3 days worth of survival food in this country. It's £1 or £2 worth of calories per person.
And all the more reason for the rest of us who can, to be prepared. So efforts can be focused where they are most needed.