UK to warn citizens to stock up on food

[TheNoonBell]

As there is already a thread on chat I thought I would link it here as it will drop off the other board.

Original thread: www.mumsnet.com/talk/_chat/5570978-hm-gov-telling-us-to-get-tinned-food-and-bottled-water

Link: https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/aug/25/uk-to-warn-citizens-to-stock-up-on-food-amid-threat-from-climate-crisis-and-hostile-states

Time to get in the winter supplies now before the candles and lanterns sell out. Very impressed with the new USBC Blukar battery lanterns after testing them this summer: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Blukar-Camping-Rechargeable-Lantern-Essentials/dp/B0GVNKNM6C

Thank you for this - honestly I had no idea. We know how everyone panics so a reminder to always be slightly prepared

I have always had a small supply of extra cans/toilet rolls/amount of water. But probably not enough to last more than a week so I will enlarge on this.

Never had a lantern before but this is going on my list. Had a few small power cuts last winter but can see this ramping up to being a bigger issue this winter. It is an faff messing about with candles and torches and they don’t really give off much light. Also will invest in more water as this is becoming a potentially bigger problem.

Those lanterns I posted last about 18 hours on full power and much more on half power. You could also consider a few glowsticks as they are pretty cheap for a box. I keep candles/tea lights as those can help heat the room a bit in a winter powercut.

Might be worth investing in some thermal leggings and tops as when the electric goes out your gas boiler won't work.

I am crap at remembering to charge things up so i am guessing a rechargable lantern isnt the best plan? Although we just bought a generator so maybe i dont need to worry about lighting so much?

You could pair the generator with a camping battery so you don't need to run the genie 24x7. You could then charge devices off the battery as required.

A noisy generator running overnight will probably get you some unwelcome visitors and you might wake up to find it has been nicked.

Sounds like a good plan. Any recommendations for batteries?

That depends what you want to run off it, if it is just for charging phones/lamps etc then a smaller one (under 1KWH) but if you want to run a freezer you might want a bigger one. Plenty of good ones on Amazon.

We have a few, an old small but easily portable Allpower, a 1000WH Vitoman and a similar sized Jackery one.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/s?k=camping+battery

Edit: we also have a 2KW petrol generator and solar panels for the camping batteries.

It's just a general warning about droughts, hackers, potential attacks. I don't think we should be emptying supermarket shelves just yet. It's always sensible to have some food in for any eventuality though. I still have my oil lamps from the three day weeks in the 70s, no charging required.