Thinking through how you'd protect your family in a war situation

[readytogo79]

Sorry this is not a nice conversation and is not meant to trigger anyone but its a bit weird to have this chat with people at school pick up or similar, so I'm wondering how others are thinking about this. I'll caveat this by saying I'm not "hysterical" (an insult I've seen flying about on here today), or dramatic, and not a conspiracy theorist or anything. I'm a professional academic, pretty moderate left, pretty pragmatic I like to think. I follow politics very closely and it's been a few weeks since I said to my husband that I think there is a case to be made that the US is no longer our ally and that we (the UK & Europe / Allies) should be preparing for the prospect of them being an adversary. I'm now pretty convinced of that.

In practice what could this mean? Article 5 and therefore NATO is looking likely to be rendered meaningless, - so an emboldened Russia invading Moldova, Lithuania, Finland... then Europe having to step up without the US, and potentially - worst case scenario but much more likely than 6 months ago - nuclear war.

I live in central London (zone 2) which my husband and child. I've been trying not to imagine this worst case scenario but given Russia are already attacking us with cyber attacks, undermining our democracy and of course the Skripol attacks etc, it's certainly a possibility one has to think about. If it started to look likely I've been thinking about what we'd do, how we could act fast and where we could go. It's a truly horrible thought and not something I ever thought I'd have to consider. But I've only got one child, and my husband and they are all I have in the world and I can already feel my protectiveness kicking in.

Even though London is our home I'd plan to leave and go somewhere in the UK less of a target. The Lake District, Snowdonia or the Highlands perhaps. I don't know how we would manage to do this but I just feel so strongly I'd want to protect my child and my family unit.

In all seriousness, has anyone thought through a scenario where we are at war, and what you would do to protect your family?

I think cyber disruption is more likely, so I'm prepping for the supply chain to be disrupted. Oil and gas maybe an issue too, so think of other cooking sources ensure alternative cooking sources, eg camping stoves. And possible blackouts so torches. Potentially lots more disruption which cannot plan for too unfortunately

It came out of a family joke and made DS1 laugh so much he was crying and that made everyone else crack up so it was well worth the tenner it cost.

Niw I’m actually glad they have them

I have weeks like this. We had pancakes 4 times yesterday cause why not?

Cross Eryri off your list Op. It's not a refuge for Londoners when the shit hits the fan.

I am actually far less worried about an actual war with screaming people running away from a nuclear bomb than for what the next 20-30-40 years is actually going to look like in all sorts of boring ways. I live in Scotland but immigrated from the states so am very intensely watching everything back there.

Women's rights, national parks being decimated, everything getting so much more expensive for all sorts of stupid reasons, measles outbreaks... all these small things add up to a world I am increasingly uncomfortable about. I feel so, so guilty about what my children are going to inherit.

I don't think the war will look like wars of the past, I think society is being dismantled slowly and we are all going to be far worse off in the future (except the multi billionaires who will of course be fine)

If it happens we will stay where we are, 3 adult dc, 2 working in the defence industry, and boyfriend of the 3rd is in the military. So we will stay here and support them as they try to protect the country we call home.

The UK. Wasn't there a practice a while ago? (Which didn't work on my phone so I will be blissfully unaware probably sitting on the loo when the bomb drops). There was a worry about alarms going off on secret phones belonging to victims of domestic violence.

I remember the sirens going off when I was a child in the 70s..presumably to check they worked but I've never heard any since so maybe we don't have them anymore.

I think 'war' won't be bombs, etc,nuclear or otherwise. More like cyber, banking, and computer viruses to paralyse business systems. Hacking into NHS systems would cause more deaths than a bomb. AI bots, propaganda, cause civil disruption. Conspiracy theory creation. Enough people already believe that anything 'mainstream' = fake/ manipulation, use that, and your population will do it for you.
Create civil war and let people turn on each other.

I used to think that before covid happened and then I was horrified at how easily people were manipulated by the press, grassed on their neighbours for going out more than once a day and generally fell into line.

Sorry, I've replied to the wrong post !!!

I used to think that before covid happened and then I was horrified at how easily people were manipulated by the press, grassed on their neighbours for going out more than once a day and generally fell into line.

A high altitude nuke causing an EMP would effectively cripple the country without a shot being fired.
No supply chain, no power or water after perhaps 3 days.

The military would be too busy protecting fuel depots and their own bases.

Criminal gangs the only ones with guns, they would control cities within days, yeah, real fun times.

I agree. I doubt there's going to be a nuclear war for lots of reasons but the most obvious is if Putin dropped an atomic bomb on the UK all the fall out would naturally drift east over Europe and into Russia. That would be such a stupid thing to do.

I think, hacking, disruption, misinformation and conscription to peace keeping/border security in eastern Europe are more likely.

Yeah, the entire Cold War siren network was decommissioned decades ago. It was realised that modern sound insulation and double glazing made it effectively useless anyway.

My husband - who is not prone to panic or conspiracy - said just this week that we shouldn't make sure we can access a good amount of savings/cash quickly in case of an emergency of this sort. I think he is imagining that we would flee the country, although where we would go is anyone's guess.

How would they make it useless, unless th sirens are really quiet? When I lived nearer the centre I could hear the siren in Finland in our very well insulated homes with triple glazing.

You obviously lived very close to a siren, then. It was one of the reasons the system was dismantled in the UK. It was also based on very old technology and not considered worth updating.

Russia wouldn't need to worry about the fallout drifting over as we would launch our own arsenal of nuclear weapons, which would decimate Russia!

We have around 250 nuclear weapons, and only around 30 are required to make Russia a non functional country!

I think having a stash of cash to hand is not a bad idea. Crippling the banking system is a quick 'win'. We rely heavily, even more so since the pandemic, on card payments that we would be screwed over very quickly and easily.

If the warning is reliant on a mobile phone signal then surely it's vulnerable to cyber attacks?

Not that I think there's much point to a nuclear warning. A bit like those road signs warning you of falling rocks - if one falls, there's bugger all I can do about it.

Unless you have a boat or are prepared to steal one, ordinary plebs have zero chance of getting off the mainland and where would you go anyway?
Isle of Man / Channel islands would probably become internment camps.

I don’t imagine Scottish islanders would welcome those coming to take their resources and as for Ireland, well, use your imagination.

Me too I would rather my kids and I just die quickly in an apocalypse

I'm a MH nurse, so would take my family and find a job in New Zealand, which is meant to be good for my career!

How will you know when to leave for NZ? How fast can you organise it? Why would they let you in?

I take comfort that Putin hasn't even been able to invade Ukraine properly so he must surely realise it would be foolish to even try with any more of his European neighbours, let alone nuclear-armed UK/France/Germany.

100% this. Food shortages, energy rationing, and daily life just being grindingly difficult, tedious and shit is far more likely. Our world would shrink down and become fairly crappy, and having a sense of inner fortitude and resilience and the ability to take real joy in small moments would be more valuable than stockpiling beans or moving to Scotland.
The time to move to an entirely new part of the world (like NZ) is probably now, not later. But not an option for most people, and not something I'd take massive pleasure in knowing the people I loved were left behind.

My biggest fear as I have a mid to late teen son, is conscription. That's what keeps me up at night, no matter how unlikely people think it might be. We wouldn't have believed the entire country would lockdown and agree to stay in their homes for months on end prior to the pandemic, but when push came to shove, people did. When people are scared they are more suggestible. I hope to god they don't bring in conscription.