Will you be disappointed if Brexit goes smoothly

[Tawdrylocalbrouhaha]

Genuine question to the Preppers - how will you feel if Brexit goes through with no significant shortages or civil unrest? Will you heave a sigh of relief and sleep better at night, or feel a tiny bit flat and disappointed?

It's the slightly excited tone of some of the Prepper threads that has me wondering this. As if having a reason to hoard is fulfilling some squirrelesque instinct, which my be thwarted if the hoards prove unnecessary?

I would rejoice if Brexit went “smoothly” and there were no food shortages or price hikes at supermarkets.

Bell we have got 4 trade deals in 2 years...

My council can't even deliver a new recycling bag!

They don't have the resources.

I’m not sure what the ‘12.8 billion’ deal with the US in reality. Is that the same amount as what we have now?

According to the EEF, the UK exports around £43 billion of goods (including food and drink) to the USA.

ContinuityError
They are playing the 'stick up an impressive number but omit any detail' game which looks good for the tabloid press. Dig into what it actually means and what it represents compared to other deals and it falls apart rapidly. It was also announced by Trump who is closing down government departments to force his 'wall' plan through.

Nothing announced so far is an improvement on what the UK already has - just partial replications or time-limited ones.

I’m not sure what the ‘12.8 billion’ deal with the US in reality. Is that the same amount as what we have now?

"The UK has struck a deal with the US to preserve £12.8bn of trade after Brexit."

"The mutual recognition agreement replicates the current deal between the EU and US on technical standards for exported goods."

Yes, the £12.8bn is the current trade we have in the products covered by the agreement. £7.7bn worth of exports (according to the BBC, £8.9bn according to the Independent) and 'over $5bn' (according to the US) worth of imports.

Trump: "We have a very good trading relationship with the UK and that's just been strengthened further. So with the UK we're continuing our trade and we're going to acutally be increasing it very substantially as time goes by.

"We expect that the UK will be very, very substantially increased as it relates to trade with the United States - the relationship there is very good."

I rather think it's the export side of that trade that Trump wants to increase, not the import.

I have never wanted to be wrong about something so much in my life.

I will however still be very angry (even if Brexit is a huge success with no problems for NI) about stripping me and my children of our rights as EU citizens.

I always had a chuckle at the preppers and used to roll my eyes. However, today I went out and I bought a whole food shop of all non perishables and put them in my store cupboard. I guess that makes me a prepper now. I did it because as time has rumbled on and nothing has reassured me I realised that prepping when it is food you actually eat is fine. I’m not hysterical or excited. I just have more soup/beans/pasta/sauces and food in the freezer.
I am actually more afraid of people panic buying at the last minute and clearing the shops out. I’d rather stay at home!
So, if it all goes well I will be relieved. I just want my life to continue as before. I certainly don’t find all this uncertainty exciting. It is making me anxious and I just want a deal to be struck so I can move on with my life.

It doesn't make you a prepper . It makes you someone prepping for Brexit.

Don’t forget to buy those items that you only need a little off, such as sugar/sweetener, salt, pepper,vinegar, gravy granules and stick cubes for soups, etc.

It doesn't make you a prepper grin. It makes you someone prepping for Brexit.

True. I was trying to think of a different description, but larderer, doesn’t quite roll of the tongue. 😁

I went to the huge Tesco today and loads of non Perishables on the first aisles on offer. Pot noodles, pasta sauce, other sauces, Mexican food kits, tuna snack things, multi packs of baked beans, cereal bars, pringles, and loads of other long life stuff that I can't remember now. I'd have expected Easter eggs to be front and centre at the moment but they aren't.

Ahead of the curve.

I have Easter Eggs!

I’m prepping for Brexit too.
If things go smoothly, I’ll first be astonished and then relieved and then happy that I have a full cupboard and don’t have to spend as much money on food as I have in the last couple of months

Now I need to do a check on what I have and what wouod still be worth buying now just in case.

Following my stocktake we definitely need more sweetcorn since the DC love it, more plain flour for pancakes, tortillas and pastry and we didn't actually have as much pasta as I thought. I will then keep buying orange juice and milk for the next few weeks to get longer dates.

Beginning of March I will be buying some part baked bread and more cheese and butter. Plus carrots potatoes, onions, butternut squash and apples.

Other than that I'm feeling like we're in reasonably decent shape. I've bought a couple of things we wouldn't ordinarily buy like some tinned ham and tinned curries but I'm happy to donate them to the foodbank if it all turns out to be fine. Long life milk is something we don't generally buy but it can be used up in porridge. Everything else will be used over time.

I trialled the pastry mix today. It was ok, not amazing. Needed a bit of salt adding I think. But it was a very easy way of doing pastry without fat.

Also did a stocktake on seeds. I seem to have purchased 500 broccoli seeds rather than 50 (which was still going to be too many!) so I suspect I'll be donating broccoli seedlings!

I live in the Middle East. Local food here is cheap & delicious - we live mostly on vegetables, pulses & chicken cooked from scratch.

But I actually love baked beans, & when I see them in the local posh deli which is the only place you can get imported food, I treat myself to a £3.50 tin for a weekend breakfast. Yum.

ALL imported food is ridiculously expensive here. Everyone returns from visits back to the U.K. or Europe with at least one suitcase full of pesto/marmite/bacon/curry paste/marmalade etc etc. Spam is definitely a delicacy.

It's fine - we eat a much healthier diet - but we miss those imported treats & pay outrageous prices for them occasionally.

This is what living in a country with a food import problem looks like.

This is what the U.K. will almost inevitably look like.

Except the U.K. is also a net importer of food, so you aren't just looking at a few wealthy expats grumbling at the appalling price of a tin of beans; you're looking at stupid prices for staples.

If I were still there, damn right I'd be stockpiling. I'd be getting enough stuff in to avoid the supermarkets altogether for a week, & then long term I'd be looking at a garage full of all the 'nice to have' stuff I'd really miss.

& as everyone has already pointed out - if the worst thing that happened was prices only going up by a manageable amount, I'd have saved a few quid & no harm done.

I reckon unicorn steak will be pretty chewy, anyway.

Surely it will taste like horse and thus be deemed too European and not at all British... therefore not having unicorns will become patriotic...

Then rainbows will also be deemed too Irish and go the same way.

There will no longer be Unicorns and Rainbows and it will all be Europe's fault.

Surely it will taste like horse and thus be deemed too European and not at all British... therefore not having unicorns will become patriotic...

Unicorn is Scottish horse. If we had Protected Designation of Origin, we could probably protect that and make money from it. Unfortunately that's one of those dirty European things so any idiot can hawk unicorn meat and get away with it.

The unicorn is Scotland's national animal (no, I don't know why we have a mythical animal as our national animal ) so hands off !

I treat myself to a £3.50 tin HOLY SHIT!!

You may like an exciting, healthy life, PurpleCrowbar, and I may live in NI with possible violence in the future and shitty weather, BUT I currently have 16 tins of beans and 12 tins of sausages in beans, so there! 🧐 feels smug

In Celtic mythology the unicorn was a symbol of purity and innocence, as well as masculinity and power. Tales of dominance and chivalry associated with the unicorn may be why it was chosen as Scotland’s national animal.

Ach youse are all pure and innocent.

And just in case you’re interested.

www.visitscotland.com/about/uniquely-scottish/national-animal-unicorn/

Exactly idonotcare.

Beans are a massive luxury item here, if you can find them, which for months on end you frequently cannot! I've tried various slow cooker substitutes & it's a nope.

I mean, it's ok for us as we're well off expat teacher types. We live for 6 months at a time without anything imported except the odd rip off 'oh bugger it I AM going to spend a tenner on that jar of Branston pickle' moment.

End of term, pretty much everyone's first Facebook post is a massive bacon butty & a glass of naice waine as soon as they touch down.

But seriously, a crap import situation means you pay through the nose for anything not made locally. From local ingredients.

Given that the U.K. doesn't actually come anywhere near supporting itself in terms of food - ouch. I live in a country where I could feed my family a perfectly healthy diet cheaply on food produced locally. The U.K. is not in that position.

Food in the EU is more expensive than in UK too. I am guessing 10% for equivalent but 'local' foods. €8 for a 250 gramme jar of Marmite.
€5.50 for 40 TyPhoo teabags (unless it was for 80, I forget now).