An interesting new article from The Guardian re: stockpiling and why it isn’t as easy as the government suggest

[UglyCathKidstonBag]

www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/jul/26/stockpile-food-no-deal-brexit-dream-on?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

Well worth a read and fairly sobering stuff.

Where exactly are companies supposed to put all this extra product? How do they pay for creating it and housing it for months on end?

@DGRossetti , to be honest, any plans I have for defending our supplies are only as strong as we are in the house. I have MS. Which probably answers that one. I tell no one we have stuff. I insist neither dh nor dd tell anyone. I have included my in laws in our plans but my mil likes to blab. I have asked dh and fil to tell her to button it.
If necessary, I will evacuate the house and have a couple of ideas about where to go.
But that's all prepper stuff and hopefully utterly unnecessary.
My prediction is some supply hiccups, a fair bit of complaining, individual tragedies (of which I hope not to be one), a return to a relatively even but more expensive normal.
Thank god my wartime generation parents are dead and not around to see this nonsense.

@DGRossetti , to be honest, any plans I have for defending our supplies are only as strong as we are in the house. I have MS.

As does DW (so medication is a worry too)

@DGRossetti - I'm "lucky" enough to not have too difficult a set of symptoms. I can manage without meds.
I'm trying to encourage people to get stuff in for themselves so that they are not "clogging up" emergency services with avoidable difficulties. Leave the emergency services free for people who need them.

DW is wheelchair bound and registered blind, so we'll have lots of fun. At least we hold two passports.

@DGRossetti - I'd strongly suggest getting in food you like and treats you like. If there's any entertainment other than the telly e.g. music; radio; audiobooks, that you like, make sure you have the means to access them all in what I hope is the unlikely event of power problems.
As far as meds are concerned, is there any way of getting repeat prescriptions a little earlier than you would normally do and storing the extra? You can always return it. I've done this.
If you need to keep meds chilled , have you got an alternative cooling facility? Even a crappy desktop fridge that runs on a usb that you can dedicate a wind up charger to.
I genuinely hope that people will make sure that they are sorted so people like your family take priority if needed.

@DGRossetti - I'd strongly suggest getting in food you like and treats you like. If there's any entertainment other than the telly e.g. music; radio; audiobooks, that you like, make sure you have the means to access them all in what I hope is the unlikely event of power problems.

We've probably got enough food to go a week without leaving the house. Easily. (But then we always have). Trick is to have quite a simple life, wich DW and I have settled into.

TBH, food would be a lower priority, compared to medication(s) and fresh water. Going cold turkey on a 25-year benzodiazepine runs a very real risk of seizure and death. (That's the bit doctors keep quiet).

Anyone recall the Winter of Discontent ? You need to have plans for dealing with refuse, and dead bodies.

As far as meds are concerned, is there any way of getting repeat prescriptions a little earlier than you would normally do and storing the extra?

DW needs a biannual top up on her pump - nothing we can do about that at all (and if the pumps stops working, nobody has a clue about the support issues. I guess titanium will have a value ?). She's well schooled in keeping supplies (and the fact she's quietly reduced them without telling anyone means we're "in surplus").

There are problems getting my meds already, but that's a different story.

Of course if everyone is doing as you suggest, then we will have created the crisis we're hoping to avert .

Bet Theresa May is stocked up on insulin ?

@DGRossetti - you can get cheapo 2 litre bottles of water in the supermarket now. Get a stash. At the first hint of water problems, fill the bath (if you have one). Boil water you aren't sure about for 10 March be. Use spray bottles and baby wipes to keep clean.
Simple life is a good way of approaching any difficulties like these envisaged.
Really hope to have lots of egg on my face.

10 March be? Wtf. I mean 10 mins

Tx for that. If you had spent time in my DFs neck of the woods (water 2 hours a day. Some days) you'd understand why we tend to be semi-prepped anyway. (We also used to caravan, which teaches you a little about what you do and don't "need").

And people laughed when we bought a gas-powered fridge.

I doubt too it will get to that. But as they say "trust in God, but tie up your camel".

Maybe break out the barrel and brew a few gallons of beer, just in case .

@DGRossetti Beer is the answer or or or even . Best wishes.

@butterymuffin I’d be interested in that program too.

Good article. Thank you OP. Our government is an embarrassment.

Maybe I'm odd, but I can recall how quickly we went from 0 to near riots when the fuel tankers stopped running back in 2000. Yet I've had conversations with (older) people that go: "What fuel crisis ?"

I was a 17 in 2000 but remember how quickly that escalated. It got pretty dicey a few times, didn’t it? That will be nowhere near the scale of this potential disaster.

I was working in London during the 2011 riots and as both my DH and I work in healthcare and were desperately needed, we ended up packing our DC off to family in the country for a few days so we could work endlessly. It escalated PDQ and things got out of control very quickly.

I have worked in other large scale emergencies (terrorist attacks) and whilst things held together, a sustained period of civil unrest will be unsustainable for the NHS and its staff.
No food, no drugs, no blood products and potentially rubbing along with reduced energy supplies (NHS generators are laughable in the majority of trusts) with wide scale looting, drug withdrawals, panic and civil disobedience is something that keeps me up at night.

Re water, buying filters is a good idea ( travel ones that can keep for 3 months and will filter toxins too) They can be found on Amazon or Boots (I use them if I go travelling somewhere exotic)

I'm surprised if most people don't have at least 3 days of edible calories in the house. Wouldn't 7 days worth be quite standard as bare minimum (most people only do one 1 shop/week)? maybe I'm more of a hoarder than I thought!

The amount you store is, in my prepper view, what you are comfortable with. Judging by some of the previous comments on here and elsewhere, most people don't have anything like enough in store. 3 days is the minimum and, in my experience, a period of time that people can get their heads around if the idea is unfamiliar, particularly if on a tight budget. If people want to do/can do/ more than that, then great.
If you are a couple of adults with no kids and no health issues, you can probably make do with whatever bits you have kicking about at the back of your cupboard or freezer - I have survived the first days of martial law and curfew (different country) on dry Weetabix and chocolate. With kids, particularly young ones, it's more difficult.

I'm surprised if most people don't have at least 3 days of edible calories in the house. Wouldn't 7 days worth be quite standard as bare minimum (most people only do one 1 shop/week)? maybe I'm more of a hoarder than I thought!

With the amount of people living on the breadline and needing help from food banks or whole families living in single room temp accommodation, there will be a considerable number without stocks.

@lljkk

Maybe in the past but not now. The last government study put the average household food stocks at 48hrs. Inside zones 1 and 2 in London, and other cities it’s less than that.

@RedneckStumpy What was that study?

(I am still surprised at average Mumsnet readers not having that much without specially stocking up, though it's obvious that most people on low incomes, quite a lot of young adults, those living in temporary acommodation, in bedsits and some houseshares, wouldn't.)

I am glad I am not you lot, what miserable lives you must all lead. I genuinely pity you all.

At the risk of being an idiot why would there be a problem with water and electricity? Do we outsource it?

Clean running water will be difficult to source when we leave the EU. We will be forced to buy chlorinated water from the US.

We are getting a treadmill to generate electricity. All family members will operate it in shifts.

chickaxe but don't we make tap water in the uk.