New warning from Wes Streeting re cyber attacks.

[MozzieFreeZone]

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/food-shortages-cyber-attack-prepare-defence-b3071656.html

We started stocking up a bit this summer because of the wildfires (am in France). I’ve got a wood burner and bbq to cook on if needed, I have a stock of flour, rice, pasta, tinned potatoes and veg, plus passata and similar sauces plus tinned meat and fish. Also loo rolls, cleaning Products and the like.
If the power went off for a week, or the shops were shut we could manage for a while. I’ve built it up gradually a bit each week and use things in rotation so they don’t go out of date.
I’m not panicking about some imaginary disaster, but as DH put it - we don’t want to be standing in line at some church hall waiting for a hand out if a storm takes down the power lines or a cyber attack shuts the shops, both of which have happened recently

I’ve been ignoring it myself up until last night. I’ve bought a few extra items from Aldi this morning. I’ve even bought a tin of corned beef! Haven’t had that in years. I have a disabled son so I can’t afford to ignore it. I need to be well stocked.

Yes. Cash is king. Although tills may not work so smaller local shops who may accept cash & keep a written record are probably best.
I use cash where-ever I can. I use tills with a person on.
I was irritated by the Govt yesterday suggesting that it is the public's fault for 'giving too much information'. If I order via M&S, or Amazon, or even tickets to my childs school show / local Christmas 'do' I need to go via a big website or event brite etc. If I refuse my name address, £ details etc. I cannot shop. Crazy.
Clearly we all need to be aware of 'cyber hygiene' but it is the companies themselves / Govts who should be keeping us safe. Not storing single digit encryption codes for secure padlock shopping for example. Cash for me if poss.

Really depends what the disaster is. Having option of gas and electricity is handy as you say. You can eat tinned soup cold if you have to though.
You might still have electricity, even if the water goes off, so would be able to cook still. Also don't forget hygiene purposes for water.

Yes gas could be down. You don't have to cook tinned food, have it straight from the can.

I guess buying tinned food you don't have to cook. Soup, sardines, tinned fruit, frozen bread, spreads, dried fruit, nuts, biscuits, tinned bean salad, crackers. It wouldn't be great meals, but would keep you going.

And some wine.

Defense spending was already increasing under the Tories, has continued to do so, and Labour have said they will increase further.

West Streeting said yesterday that his is the only department certain it will have increased funding in the budget.

You've been getting your news from selective sources.

i will eat my words if it is truly increased but from what I have seen it isn’t meeting the amount considered necessary nor the amount that Healy resigned over (28bn extra needed)

but like I said, I’ll see

Over the next 4 years obvs not 28 in one go!

Greengrocers, butchers, bakery, farm shop, local subscription veg box schemes. It is in their interests to stay open and keep feeding people for as long as they can. Small businesses often cannot sustain extended closure without support.

These kinds of businesses take cash or have already taken payment upfront from the customer, Suppliers are paid in arrears by invoice.

Currently they stock a variety of veg, salad, apples, from local farms, baked goods, and shelves stocked with longer life dry goods right now, so they should be ok as they were during Covid.

If power is lost, that will cause a problem for every food business more quickly than a cyber attack.

Supermarkets will try to stay open too, but their complex supply chains and systems will make it harder to unravel the mess created once services are fully restored. There may also be a security problem if they accumulate a lot of cash, that won’t pass a risk assessment.

You're either living somewhere very affluent with some very niche suppliers or those supply chains aren't as short as you think (possibly both). Where are your veg box getting tomatoes from in January?

I had a local veg box for a while, local in that the "home farm" was local but the produce wasn't all, not by a long shot.

Still a good idea to have a few supplies in just in case though.

I read once that supermarkets have a crisis plan where they prepare boxes of essentials and sell those for cash at their front door. No choices, you have to buy the essential box.

It’s a mixed but rural area. Far more pubs serving roast dinners than chicken shops.

Of course there aren’t local tomatoes in January 😂.

There are local onions, potatoes, root veg, leeks, brassicas, winter salad leaves, and a few stored apples. In normal times they import tomatoes but in an emergency they might not continue to. The point is that they would still be open and there would still be food to buy.

When everyone else switches to them because the suppermarkets are bare....?

Not everybody will be able to afford to be shopping that way, so that will not happen.

You would like to think the big supermarkets have emergency plans in place for if the shit hits the fan. I would bet my house that within 24 hours Tesco would have the old pricing guns out and calculators at the tills. Ditto for other shops, these are all multi million pound businesses highly doubt they are coasting along and would close for days/weeks/months however long it took to get back to normal. Look at how quickly everyone adapted to covid.

God can you just imagine... we would all be wheeled out again on a Thursday evening clapping and banging pots... giving it woo hoo 👏 for the engineers fixing the cut underground sea cables 🤣

It won't need to be "everyone", just 5% more than they're used to, especially when they'll be facing the same fuel shortages and infrastructure challenges as everyone else.

I’ve always shopped in such a way that there’s a good week’s worth of food in the house at least, usually more, it might not be perfectly balanced or exactly what everyone wants to eat but it would keep us going.

Since this started being discussed more - which was months and months ago as I recall, I’ve been a bit more organised about it, as in adding long life milk and bottled water to the weekly shop which I’m stashing in the garage, a little extra for the food cupboard and making sure to replace things as they get used up.

I bought a ridiculous amount of both pillar candles and tealights for our wedding 7 years ago, so we have a huge box of those left, though it’s just occurred to me that we don’t actually have any matches in the house, just one dodgy old lighter so I’ll probably pick up a box and/ or a couple of those candle lighters. We have a couple of torches, but I’ve ordered a wind up one too which is also a wind up radio. Cheap on Amazon, the reviews were good though so I’ll see what it’s like when it arrives.

I do want to get a camping stove, DH was with me on it all up to this point but he is looking at me a bit like I’ve lost the plot on this one. I’ll just feel better though - we do have a barbecue I suppose.

Rarely have cash in the house but we actually do at the moment so I’ll stash that away.

I have power banks but I’ll need to find where they went and get them charged.

I just think it’s good to be prepared and only last year for example we had no water for 24 hours due to flooding (which sounds odd!) - we were lucky enough to have it restored fairly quickly but surrounding areas had none for a few days.

It's not about how you'd pay, it's about how the food would get into the shops. That's why we're only being asked to prepare for a few days. Yes "they" would fix it but it might take a few days.

The toilet roll fiasco was never about a shortage of loo rool or people stockpiling. It was caused because lots of people bought a little bit extra or a little bit earlier than usual, and everyone was at home using their own loo all day rather than the work loo. So supermarkets needed more loo roll whereas commercial suppliers were selling less. It just took time to get it all in the right place.

It hasn’t been an issue so far, you just kept more stuff in your home during that time.

Whether people now stock extra stuff doesn’t mean they’ve missed out on much. Just had more room at home.

I can’t speak for everywhere, but the basics from independent retailers I use aren’t expensive - meat, dairy and veg. It’s a myth that they are.

They are similar to supermarket prices because they sell a lot, and being locally produced makes a massive difference now the price of diesel is so high. The grocery store sells short dated cans and dry packs of things like pasta for less which helps a lot as long as you’re flexible about what you buy. It all works because people in
this rural area want to support local farms.

The exception is Sourdough bread at £4.50 a loaf. I don’t usually buy that.

The other aspect people don’t think of is that parts of the food supply may be redirected to the vulnerable as businesses have arrangements with local councils.

So another reason to have a few days supply in.