The most common first contact I get from people via my contact form is the statement “I’m glad someone else out there in the UK is having the same concerns as I am.”
The contact emails then usually go along the lines that;
- Their families/children think they are nutters
- They find the US sites to be too gun orientated or unsuitable
- They don’t have the resources that the US preppers seem to have
- Where do they start?
- How can they meet like minded individuals?
Well, as I have answered them individually;
- From my stats I can see there are many others of the same mindset in the UK simply lurking. Hundreds of people keeping their heads down but learning
- Most people also have families that do not see any concerns on the horizon. The few whose families are also involved are where both parents are already self reliant
- The US sites have a significantly wider set of climate and social issues than the UK and their preparation shows it. Some do have the same issues as us and we can still learn from them
- The US preppers do have access to different kit and prepping resources. We will have to come up with substitutes or find a local source of supply
I set these sites up to provide a UK orientated site to help and facilitate all those things. You will find many like minded people here and on the Forum where you can discuss survival, prepping and self sufficiency topics.
No matter what you think, you are not in a unique situation nor are you without access to help. Simply ask and if I don’t know then others will usually have the answer. Between us we can resolve all but your financial issues and find a way to help you work around those family issues, prepping issues and make you feel part of a community, even if it is a secretive one, because we are all in the same boat. Modern day Noahs surrounded by people that see no issues going on today because that is what they are told by politicians, supported by the MSM and reinforced by people who have an interest in keeping the status quo.
So join in, use the Forum, learn and share. Bear in mind that this is insurance, an event may not happen but if it does you will be in a better position than most. If it doesn’t then you will be more self reliant, have reduced your reliance on the state and reduced your payments to an insatiable and greedy system designed to strip you of every penny it can. It is win win for you, so what have you to lose?
Well hate to argue but we are not gun crazy, we are gun HAPPY.
You start like all of us did. One extra can at a time and one bag of beans at a time.( I use the example if you do your weekly shopping and you know you are going to use 6 cans of green beans and maybe 4 cans of corn,Say you use 3 cans of beans and 1 can of corn, when the week is up don’t say I already have beans and corn left. Buy the 6 cans and 4 cans for the week. Put these behind the ones you had left. You now have 9 cans of beans and 7 cans of corn.) And with the slow stocking up watch the sale’s, when something goes on sale buy up what you can afford.
The things that even we U.S.’r’s have to save for is the more costly items. I am still waiting to get a duel fuel lantern. Don’t get me wrong there are those that can do because they have the money. But alas and alack all American’s wait on a payday too.
As far as American resources I have done 98 percent of my prepping at our infamous Wall Mart and the local grocer.
We have the same problem here where family think we have gone banana’s. But if there is a will there is a way to do it even with the name calling. Besides this is a hedge against inflation let alone some worse thing happening.
Finding like minded people is kinda a problem. You have to be careful who you blab to. I would make sure I didn’t give out how much I have or how much I am doing, as they are probably doing the same, keeping it mum.
I do know the British are tough. And I know they can make do. So if you prep you will be way ahead of the game.
Ellen,
I didn’t say gun crazy. I specifically said gun orientated. It just means that the US preppers lean towards an armed response while the UK cannot. This is in hunting as well as self defence and is key to many of your strategies.
The rest is the basic process. As and when you can. Most areas we can still share information and experiences although we are more aligned with your inner city and suburb preppers rather than those with ranches and remote homesteads.
Some of us Brits still have the bulldog spirit. It is slowly being beaten out with our education and political system but will never totally disappear. No different from the US although you have the advantage of unregistered weapons which must give your government pause.
Well must have been dodding off could have sworn it said crazy, I stand corrected. We do have to register guns. And it is getting worse about it. I believe a gun is not the problem. You can lay a gun on a top shelf and the gun will do nothing. It is inanimate. The animation comes from the action of a person picking it up and using it. It goes along with the same principle of a car. You park a car in a garage and it does nothing, till someone gets in it and away they go.
Now having said that. I cannot speak for the temperment or mindset of the gun owner or user. And one has to remember the good citizen may be unarmed, but the bad guy can get a gun when and where he wants with no paper work on his guns.
Gee! how did I get off on this?
I love prepping. It makes me feel secure. And as I said it sure hedges against inflation, if that be the only thing we have to worry about.
Well will go, Love your site.
Ellen,
I’ve not modified the text. I was careful with the words because I don’t think the US is gun crazy although many people both there and here do.
Agree with your philosophy. The difference is that you can obtain firearms in many US states without the
KGBguvmint knowing. I cannot do that in the UK unless I break the law.I also agree that prepping makes you feel better. You always do when you feel safer.
Thank you. I try my best.
That’s sweet offering counselling like that. What’s the very first step anyone should take upon the survival road?
Fred,
I’m just that sort of guy.
You have already started by asking that sort of question. See the links on the left sidebar for the next steps. A lot of time has been spent on them so far with lots more to go.
Guns don’t kill people, people kill people.
But people kill people with guns.
Gun control says that while 999 out of 1000 people can be trusted with guns the 1 in every 1000 will kill with their gun and so for the safety of all the 999 should go without.
The problem with this philosophy is that the 999 are less able to defend themselves.
Homicides per capita are much higher in the US than the UK, so either Americans are naturally more homicidal or gun control does reduce the ability of a population to kill.
Skvez,
People who don’t have access to guns still kill people. The intent does not change. Nobody thinks ‘I’ll kill him’ Oh wait I don’t have a gun I’ll buy him chocolate instead they take a knife or a bat and attack them.
I didn’t realise that the stats were than bad. We have 500,000 people in the UK with guns. That means 5000 of those are murderers. I wonder what the rate is for knives. I suspect that it must also be 1000:1 as that must be human nature. That makes it 600,000 people ready to snap. That is clearly not right so something is wrong with the data.
The stats from the US do not show this as the case. Where gun ownership goes up crime comes down. It really dependson your view and where I would be happy to see a potential rapist with lead poisoning than for them to rape their victims instead.
Now I think about it what is the ratio of car deaths to car drivers? I think we have something else we can ban. Soon you won’t be able to smoke, drink, eat far or do a million and one other things. All because it saves just one life and it is worth it. When bacon and my soft chewy sweets go then I’ll be the one snapping. I’ll sharpen my spork now.
Sorry Skean the “one in a thousand” wasn’t supposed to be a stastically accurate ratio, just an example.
However many people who might shoot someone lack the courage to ‘get up close and personal’ with a knife or bat.
US stats are skewed because gun ownership goes up with rural setting (fewer person to person encounters) and with wealth. Wealthy people are less likely to be homocidal (they destroy others in more subtle ways).
Wonder when we will have to start registering or knives?
Great site!!! As a new US prepper, it is nice to come across sites like this, aimed at things the average person can do. Here in the States there is sometimes an overemphasis on guns, but I don’t own one yet, and many are like me. I am focusing for now on preps like food and water (here in Texas), more for economic decay, fast or slow, that seems likely. Prices are rising on everything, it seems, and if nothing else, this will help soften the blow. Also, just look at a few utube videos on the rioting that can happen the minute any sort of “emergency” announcement is made, even something like “it might snow tomorrow”! Anyway, love your site, am looking forward to mining the info here!
Donna,
Welcome. Thanks for the comment I’m glad you like it as I am trying my best.
Although I agree you should focus on food an water I would suggest that you get a shotgun at the very least. They are cheap enough and will give you a distinct advantage if need it and you are prepared to use it. You don’t have to but having it and not needing it is million times better than the other way around.
I look at it very simplistically. Our prepping will enable us to live much cheaper and less under government control and if something does happen that effects you there is a plan rather than simply reacting like the bulk of society.
Mine away. That is what the site is for and if you feel you have something to contribute let us know.
Skean there is no way you buy guns in the Uk unless you own a piece of land right? even if you do, you can only buy a shotgun.
Peace,
There are plenty of places you can buy guns but let us look at the legal ones first.
You can buy a shotgun by simply by applying for a Shotgun License and paying your
tax, sorry, license fee. You need someone, official, to vouch for you. 10 year olds are being issued with them.You can also buy a Firearm, a rifle realistically, when you pay a different
taxLicense fee and have permission to shoot on someones land, it doesn’t have to be your land. Checks are made that the land is suitable. You need two people to vouch for you with this and if you are a good boy for a few years you can apply for approval for something bigger.On the other hand go to Darren at your local pub in town and pick up a gun, any type. All the best gangsters have them just in case they are dissed at some point. No license, no vetting and no bothersome waiting either.
In the discussion about arms i would like to suggest to consider your own body as a weapon.
Aikido is fun to do 😉
You can also seriously hurt someone with a walking stick/blow pipe…
Hi5
Jan5
Jan,
Good point. Many people already work towards that and everyone should at least keep themselves to a certain level of fitness which also comes in handy if you need to defend yourself.
I find mindset is one of the biggest differentiators in a self defence situation. Many people now just give up with the view that everything will be OK. I suspect that mindset will carry on after an event and these people will make easy prey.
We want our potential victims to be as dangerous as possible. This is a deterrent to the bad guys. If we cannot arm them they need something else knives, bats, their own bodies. Isn’t it strange that the use of all these are penalised by the state. It’s almost as if there is an agenda… No, can’t be. I must be imagining it.
just found your site im from just outside liverpool and have been building up a food supply for about two years now,i worry about the future and this criminal goverment who only seem to represent the interests of big business and treat us like slaves. hope your well nice site ,its good to see a site like this for us in the uk thanks
Ste,
Welcome.
Glad you found us and like the site. We are always happy to have new people join us. Feel free to contribute here and at the forum.
No you are not alone guys, Hi from another prepper based in Co Durham, I’m delighted to find more survivalists and preppers flourishing in the UK, keep up the good work , respect from the folks at PUK
NR,
Welcome. Thanks for visiting. I’ve added your link to the sidebar and I’ll be over there to contribute.
Likewise I’ve added SUK.Net to our files 🙂
Hi Skean
Loving the website, I’ve just started prepping and its nice to know there are others out in the UK with similar likeminds and attitudes to self-reliance and survival.
I’ve just started to put together an allweather EDC for our indecisive weather cycle so as not to be caught out in the rain again so found some of your suggestions helpful. Next is home, garden and caches…you know..just in case :o)
Much apprecitaed and definitely will be back
Lewis,
Welcome. There is plenty more for you to explore. The link to the forum is at the top if you want to join in on the discussions. Look forward to seeing you there.
Hi All!
I just found this site & just wanted to say it’s good that their are like minded people out there. I agree with all you say on our over the top laws on guns & knives. I recently read a news article that said a pensioner was prosecuted for having a swiss army knife in his glovebox. He told police he kept it for peeling oranges when he and his wife went on picnics and they still prosecuted him. Outrageous!
I bought an air rifle around a year ago, I have asked dozens of farmers for permission to use it on their land to no avail. It’s now sat rusting in my shed (in a locked cabinet I had made for it) unless I want to drive 15 mile to my nearest range who charge me £10 a time to shoot some metal rabbits.
Keep up the good work.
Big Al
Big Al,
Welcome. I’m glad you like it.
I would have liked to be on the jury for that one. I bet he accepted a caution rather than face jail.
Try again around Mar when the rabbits and pigeon are starting to eat the crops. Also tell them that you will tidy up behind you, close the gates and will only come around after making sure it is OK. It took me a while to find a farmer that was Ok with it. Its our stupid laws designed to make it awkward. Remember, farmers don’t really get anything from it and it causes them hassle so in reality he is doing you a favour and with little or no return. Good luck though there are some out there.
offer some help to the farmer in return for some shooting ?
Hi just found the site after doing my first “double shop”. Things are becoming so unhinged over the channel. As the saying goes we are only seven days away from a civil war (seven days food in the supply chain fom from kitchen shelf, via supermarket logistics to dock side). I hope I’m wrong but things are looking very dodgy!
I’ll be stocking up over the coming weeks.
Mugin,
Welcome. I hope this site will be of help. It sounds like you have already found some advice then. Glad you have a head start.
Skean Dhude
Thanks, I’m enjoying looking through the site.
Hi this story has just appeared on the Daily Telegraph web site.
‘Europe’s mishandling of its affairs is now grave enough to alarm the Pentagon, presumably well-briefed by the DIA, NSA, and ECHELON network of electronic eaves-dropping.
“We are extraordinarily concerned by the health and viability of the euro because in some ways we’re exposed literally to contracts but also because of the potential of civil unrest and break-up of the union,’’ said General Martin Dempsey, chair of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff. ‘
Aye and we all know how the Federalists in Washington DC reacted the last time anyone democratically elected to leave a Union.
America talks much about Liberty, Freedom, Democracy, etc but it failed itself at the first fence when it attacked the southern states who freely and openly used their democratic rights as states to leave the Union and create the Confederacy. The US is ruled by a social elite of old money and big business, and its trying to set up something equally nefarious in Europe.
The UK and US were quite content to let brutal dictators rule many a country so long as the oil and minerals kept flowing at the right price, America is on record as calling Quaddafi, Noriega,Hussain etc as good special friends of America when it suited em, and look what happened when it no longer sauited them.
Now many of the tyrants have gone only to be replaced by Islamic Fundamentalists…………………
I have just started to prepare just in case and I am so pleased to find this website and know that I am not alone. My family think I am going through a mid life crisis and my friends think I am mad!
Those ones who are mad are those who think the government can help us and protect us during a disaster or war when they cannot even run the country on a day to day basis. No there are no shortages of food, fuel or water, but who on earth can afford anything but bare essentials any more.
Hi all,
Really pleased to have found this site.
I have been quietly looking into prepping for the past year and put together a spreadsheet on food, water, shelter, security etc. I started to take it really seriously last week when my wife came home from a meeting with friends and brought the subject up. I showed her the spreadsheet and she was amazed at how far I had planned ahead.
Right now we are gathering in provisions for 3 days away from home, a simple “Bug out bag”. From there we will prep for a maximom of 6 months away. There is so much of the right equipment to gather in and so many skills to learn.
I have been a keen Dartmoor walker for some years and pack a fire steel, small stove etc. But the stove will stay at home and I will learn to use the fire steel with kindling. Then the fire steel will be replaced by a fire bow.
Take care all of you out there.
BobS
Bob,
Welcome. Glad your other half is on board. That is a great help and willmake things a lot easier for you. Sounds to me like you are already well down the path. I’m sure you will pick up a few hints and tips from here.
Good luck.
at last i stumble onto this great site,…i’m not a nutter after all.one daughter said (dad you need to see someone you need help ) after showing her my crossbow and food stash of a years prep.
i surf youtube ALL THE TIME for the latest info and help . As a child 2 things stand out in my mind the mayan 2012 bit and the pyramids then von dan etc, i might be sixty this december BUT I AIN’T GOING QUIETLY all i do now is for my 7 grand children. PEACE AND LOVE MAN as i said in the sixties and i still do today” p.s. I FEEL A LOAD BETTER NOW a UK site
Howard,
Welcome. I think you will find you are far from alone. Visit the forum to meet a few more people. Most of us are thinking sociaetal collapse rather than 2012 but who knows maybe that is what the Mayans predicted.
social collapse is a prelude as i see things,and thats bad enough so we are working on that part
first in the order of things. Underground is best i think,so thats what i am working on now….location and stelth its not easy to plan let alone expedite the work BUT i will get it done and soon ALL WITH HELP OF THIS SITE regards howard
Skean,hi,
just to let you know Anto died in a car crash 3 day’s ago.
i’ve been going through his affects & he had written a bit about your site, i read the comments he was waiting for you to put on the site & he was quite enthusiastic about the whole prepping thing.
we shared this mail address in our work, so i will continue to use it & as a tribute to him will be standing in for him on this site & contribute as and when i can – if that is okay with you?.
he was a good man & had a lot to offer & he was really passionate about imparting some of his knowledge in the hope it may help others in the bad times ahead.
that’s it really, i just thought you would like to know of his passing though his involvement with your site was brief.
kind regards & good luck in the future.
SHADOW COMPANY.
I’m sorry to hear that. Ironically, I have got two of his posts scheduled, one for tonight and one for next week. I wish I had managed to get them up so he could have read them. You just never know what the future holds.
I’m quite happy for you to participate in the site and if you want to use Anto’s email then that is your decision and I’ll leave it up to you.
You have all of our condolences.
Good luck, regards,
SD
its a sad thing when you look to things like hurricane katrinas aftermath, where people were left without the basics! And that was one of the most powerful countrys in the world. It just shows that when nature hits man just has to do what he can to survive! Uk is ill prepared for anything like that, the police had enough problems when it came to the riots… Can you imagine if it was something worse.
It just shows us that we have to do it ourselves. i’m living in the north east of england with lots of farmer land. I personaly wouldnt go for a gun as it puts you on the records of things, you can get a good crossbow without issues, bolts are cheap and they can fire metal balls and lead. And bigger still thier is less to go wrong with them.
Would love to meet people more local to me as it would be good to have a network for when things dohappen. The more hands (and prep)the better chance of survival!
SD, THANK YOU FOR YOUR MAIL, AT LEAST THE TWO ARTICLES HE WROTE WILL BE SEEN & HOPEFULLY BE OF HELP TO SOMEONE, I’M SURE WHERE EVER HE’S ENDED UP HE WILL BE GLAD OF THAT, I WILL LOOK FORWARD TO SEEING THEM IN PRINT, AS WILL HIS FAMILY & FRIENDS.
MAY YOUR PREPPING FOR THE FUTURE BE SUCCESSFUL & RESULT IN YOUR CONTINUED SURVIVAL, BOTH YOU & YOUR FAMILY.
KIND REGARDS THE WHOLE OF SHADOW COMPANY.
HI
Just want to thank you for this site and all the hard work it must have taken(and still is obviously) if not for people like you – people like us would have no-where to go.
I have been an active member of another site for 6 months or so (after lurking on mainly US sites for the previous 12 months) – and prepping seriously for around 6-9 months – now I am ready to expand my knowledge – and here is where I believe I will get the information I need. Hopefully it will not be all ‘take’ – as I have built up knowledge and experience over 60 odd years – some of which must be useful to someone. To start with though I think its time to put the kettle on and sit down to see if there are any areas I may be of use to you and the site in general.
Wolfpup, Welcome. Any help you can give will be appreciated.
hi all, at last a site that seems to talk sence and is uk based and orientated hurah.ive been preping in the most basic form for a while but have loads of questions that i cant get answered on us sites only fobed of to buy this or that item from a selected suppler. is it me ??? Would love to meet like minded folks no mater where in the uk as i have plenty of time on m y hands. I AM semi disabled ( my family say in the head ) but im willing to let this go so as to protect my family in the future. hope to talk to you all soon, and as i say have fun
So join the SUK.NEt forum and ask your questions mon ami ? the link is at the top right corner of this page.
Good web site ,glad to see people in the U.K are taking note only the very well prepared could survie alone , we need some way of joining together to pull threw what may be coming,all we can do is stock up and make our plans U.K weapons law may be tight and may be rightly so ?, may be you are the sort of person that can on think about armig your self,but if you are there are other ways to deffened you and your family look on the web for sites that sell crossbows , air guns ,sling shoots ect it may give you and edge and some peace of mind , and in some situations that may be all you need GOOd LUCK to every one.
On citizen ownership of firearms. go back to 1939, the UK expected a german invasion. they did not have enough guns for both the army and the Home
Guard. American citizens collected and gave the British 200,000. We also gve the British Army a couple hundred US 1917 rifles. Later when the army received ufficient guns, these were provided to the Home guard.
In the US Hawiaan territory about 6 months before Dec7, 1941 the Navy told the governor they expected Japaanese to invade. Hawaii at that time did not allow private owner ship of rifles. The governor called out the Militia, unfortunately only 500 rileds wwere available.
The US called out the Militia in both the east coast states and the west coast states. It was bring your own and about 200,000 citizens came foreward with hunting rifles and shot guns. After the war, the US questioned the JHapanese officer who was the intelligence officer for the west coast. He was asked whay the Japanese did not invade the west coast. His reply “Are you crazy, every house there has a gun. Our casualtine would have been monstrous.”
I joined the Illionis Reserve Militia, a home guard unit, in 1945. I was a 16 year old high school student. I was issued a M1917 rifle and later a M1928A1 Thompson sub machine gun. that was a great ego builder for a sixteen year old student.
According to the US News much of central England is occupied by the Jihadis. They are smuggling in AK, when real trouble satrts, what will you shoot back with, a garden hose. Good luck on that. SGM US army retired.
I’m an expat, living in Spain, I’ve been prepping for a few months now. I wonder if there are any others in Spain? I can’t own a crossbow in Spain, I need a licence for it, the same as for a shotgun but you have to do a course and take an exam in Spanish and my Spanish isn’t up to that. I do have a couple of air rifles, one of them is a .22 10 shot pump action rifle. The other is single shot. Both are around 17 or 17.5 Lb/ft. The legal limit here is 18Lb/ft but you are supposed to register them with the Local Police. The pump action looks like a shotgun from a distance and I’m relying on that more than actually shooting someone, but with a velocity of about 310 mps, I wouldn’t like to get hit with it. We live in a gated security resort but the security guards don’t have guns, although many have licences for revolvers but if the Euro crashes and chaos follows, they are hardly likely to turn up for work, they’ll be at home protecting their families. I can survive here for a month at the moment. I have no plans for after that time.
Mel, Welcome.
You are not in a unique situation there but one worthy of a good review of your options. Your situation has some challanges.
I wouldn’t anticipate a return to the UK, there’d be no point if things were bad there too, at least we have a base here and I imagine being able to hold out for a while.
Ola Mel, Your better off hunkering down in Spain because its got more natural resources than here plus a better climate overall, only other survivalists I ever came across n Iberia was a guy called Harry who bought a vinca, and years ago their was a spanish militia group of preppers called the green berets, I believe their are preppers in the Algave portugal and on the Balearic islands.
Have you thought about a modern compound bow for hunting and self defence, its what lots of Brits are getting into.
Hi Norther Raider, most Brits here seem to think that whatever happens in the outside world, they aren’t going to be affected, that somehow things will just keep going along as it always has. Well, I guess pretty much like most people everywhere. No, I did consider a bow but made another choice, I don’t imagine it’d come to a seige situation but if the shops run out, I can still hunt as a last resort. True, there are more resources, plenty of rabbits and swimming pools full of water. I guess I’m the only nut here then. Its not something you can really talk to people about, so I don’t really know if there are other like minded people. I don’t know anything about Spanish militias but I wouldn’t want to get involved with them anyway. Thanks for your feedback. I got a 80Lb Pistol crossbow from Germany but I have to keep it hidden away. I can’t see the point of a full sized one, I wouldn’t be able to train with it anywhere, come to that,I don’t suppose I’d be able to train with a bow either…Cheers..Mel
Mel my Spanish geography is zero but one of my associates informs me there is a thriving community of preppers, homesteaders, off gridders and alternative lifestylers in the south of Spain in an area or place called Orgiva. best I can offer.
Thanks, I’ll look into it. I’m in the South in the region of Murcia.
Yup good luck, my contact says that entire area of Orgiva is dotted with ex pat Brits and spaniards living off grid alternative lifestyles, including preppers
Just looked it up on the map, unfortunately its miles away. Never mind.
Cheers…Mel
Hi there,
i’ve just found your site and, much like many previous posters, i am extremely happy to find a UK based site. Not discounting the US based sites though as i have picked up some good basic tips and by doing a few quick Google searches often manage to find information on UK equivalents to ideas/kit.
i am very new to prepping and lived in blissful ignorance until a co-worker got me to watch a documentary called “Collapse” which deals with peak oil. Having been subjected to some harsh truths regarding our over reliance on oil/petrochemicals (and after a few weeks of late night panic attacks) i have started looking into prepping and permaculture as ways forward.
The more my perceptions have changed in the last few months the more often news stories of social unrest, financial collapse, corruption and a manipulative/clueless govement jump out at me. For an example: with all the news coverage of North Korea and Iran nuclear testing i decided to see what the goverments advice was regarding preparedness and emergency plans….and found no real advice.
i am 34, married and have a 3 year old son. My wife is pretty understanding but i think she just lets me get on with it,i’m trying to get her more involved and invested as i feel that mental preparedness is as important as stocking up.
I will hopefully be popping up on the forums eventually but will probably “lurk” quite a bit at first.
Many thanks for the great site and hope to learn a lot, as well as contribute if possible.
Welcome Ratty are you going to join in the debates on the main forum or just use the home page board?
Thanks for the welcome Raider,
Hopefully I will be interacting on both, although I tend to take my time to get to know the ‘etiquette’ of a community before venturing in.
If only I had your wisdom Ratty No13.
Ive been trying to work out the forum for 2 days.
finally think I understand it all now.
youd never think I build computers and cant even manage the workings of a website and forum lol.
Hi everyone. I have been stockpiling food for some time. I am worried about use buy dates. Can you recommend certain foods which keep better than others, or is the best thing to buy in cans?
Also, are there any places in the uk deemed as safer if society collapses?
Keith,
Sell by dates are pretty irrelevant. Made up by lawyers and marketing. Read some other articles on here about Usee by dates.
Deemed safe?Not as such. you have to make your own safe place unfortunately. Again, read some articles pn here.
I’ve been meaning to look for UK sites for prepping for quite a while.
I’ve been doing it for some 6 years or more myself. You’ll laugh out loud when I tell why. By the way this might be a long post, as there’s some explaining to do.
I used to work in Pathology in the NHS, no longer in the lab but managing the pencils and grubbing for budget latterly. About 2 years or so before our ‘damp squib’ of a pandemic in 2008-9 I accidentally got involved in the revising of the government fantasy plans for dealing with the next pandemic [flu mainly but could be a lot of other things], anyway I contributed, asked questions, buffed up on my virology, pestered colleagues for opinions and facts, asked more questions, did some more personal research, thought about it a lot with regard to consequences. Within several months I became utterly disillusioned with the government’s ideas on dealing with the next pandemic. They truly were laughable and lucky for them it wasn’t a bad one when it came or they’d have been screwed and so would we.
I’ll give you an example. There’s a couple of terms used in this. CFR or case fatality rate and SR strike rate which is the % of the population who will contract the disease. Now we hadn’t had any pandemic for decades and as each year went by without one the numbers starting stacking up against humans because it appeared from historical records that the longer the gap between pandemics, then the worse it was likely to be when it got here [particularly with flu since the larger gap meant fewer of the population with immunity left, those having been around for the last one].
All of us were caught wrong footed by what came through door eventually. Everyone and I mean everyone involved in this had an eye on a flu virus called H5N1 which had been killing people for a couple of years in the far east. As it slowly changed, certain of the sub types became more and more pathogenic[more severe disease causing]and one in Indonesia had a CFR of 83%. This thing was killing 4 out of every 5 people it infected in a dreadful parody of the 1918 flu but worse![1918 flu only had a CFR of about 10%] The good news though is that even now, it still hasn’t naturally worked a way of passing easily between victims [although some idiot scientists in Holland artificially forced the mutation in a lab -felt like killing them myself jees it’s a gift for some terrorist nutjob. H5N1 was in effect mass death on an unprecedented scale waiting to happen. Because it was a flu virus we knew/know that the slightest change could alter its ability to infect us. The bad news was that it could be present in the same animal -a pig that had other kinds of flu which already easily passed between humans. The pig is one of the few animals which can incubate human and avian viruses simultaneously -gee thanks God. We know that viruses can and do exchange genetic information, and as I say everyone had their eye on this thing expecting it to make the last real jump. It hasn’t yet but is still out there killing, and still out there mixing in pigs along with now the latest H1N1 flu virus which did pass easily.
So we were all looking east and it came from the West. An old virus with a couple of new tricks but essentially not a real problem.
Ok, so all we were planning was a numbers game for the government. They wouldn’t let the scientists/doctors use the worst case scenario because that truly was scary and it immediately put them on notice that should such an event occur, there simply was no solution. So we had several working scenarios we were allowed to consider.
60,000,000 population -the agreed SR was 50%. So 30,000,000 would likely get it -and did [but most never knew with this one]
The accepted hospitalization rate was 5% – i.e those who would need additional care in hospital
So we have around 1,500,000 people needing hospitalization. Not all at once BUT within a likely window of 12 weeks AND staying likely for 10 days.
At that time the entire NHS could muster only 188,000 beds of all kinds never mind that these people would be requiring ventilation, aspiration and a damn sight higher care level than a normal ward. So even if we kicked everyone out of hospital the day before we would still fall well short of bed availability and staff availability, in any and all of the scenarios.
The CFR was allowed to be just 1%. or 300,000.
So no matter how I computed this -and there are specific algorithms around for working out how many will get it how many they will infect etc and at what stage- it was a no win situation. The more I read and learned the more convinced I became that there was only one way to survive in this nightmare scenario.
As soon as you become aware that there there is a highly contagious virus with a high CFR [we might not even know that for a couple of weeks, so you can see how hard it is to know when to jump?] then you have to put up the shutters and have no contact with anyone outside your family group, which means being prepared. That’s it. There is no action or activity that any government can take which will stop, arrest, reduce or prevent these diseases, regardless of what they say. There is also [at the moment] no treatment other than supportive measures which may be given to the ‘lucky’ few in the first few days only.
So I wrote a book on this. It was too damned important not to tell everyone that personal survival was the only way. I wrote a novel called ‘The Worst Case’. I spent nearly 2 years writing it and had it ready to go to a publishers in the October of 08 I think it was. Basically it was the horror story written into everyday life and I explored what would happen when the sh1t hit the human fan. I even refused to watch some BBC drama about the same thing which ran towards the end of my writing time, so that no one could say I did it on the back of that. Anyway early 2009 the pandemic hit from the opposite direction and I guess it was the worst time in the world’s history to try to sell an ‘End of the world’ book about the next pandemic as it had already started. No one at that time knew how it would play out though or that it wasn’t as deadly as a lot of scenarios played it. We were lucky. just lucky -then. That time. but the clock is still ticking. I had up to the minute access to what was happening as scientists around the world sent each other every snippet of new info. Now that I have left the service I’m not even going to be in the loop if it happens again in my life. But I will be watching and looking out for it on the net.
So I scared myself half to death with just how un-prepared I and my family were to face this scenario. I even covered this in my novel because the biggest enemy to prepping is when you say ‘nah, it’ll never happen’. So I laid out a chapter with this guy going through the phases of learning about the potential threat, becoming alarmed and convinced, then working out just what he could do to prepare for this possibility without going OTT. Just sensible practical considerations.
At this time I have not yet looked at the rest of this site so I don’t know what you have already by way of ‘preppy’ lists and stuff. From the two pieces I’ve read, the intro and the one dealing with the industry analogy, I am pretty sure that Mr Dhude will probably have thought of all the things I have.
I look forward to reading more.
It’s great to see I’m not alone. Can’t believe how many like minded people are out there. After years of quietly preparing, testing skill building. Years of my warnings falling on mostly dead ears, I find this site. Makes pretty good reading and as soon as I get used to this tablet, hopefully I can add to it.
Mally,
You are not alone and have come to the right place to learn.
Thank you, thank you I thought only Americans worried about this. It’s wonder to know I’m not alone in the UK. I’m clueless about all of this but I intend to learn.
Nora,
You are not alone there are quite a few of us out there all preparing in our own ways for whatever we feel will be the event for us. Not all are prepping for WWIII and unlike the Americans we get no help from our laws.
Have you met like minded people on the forums yet? They might be worth a browse as well.
Hello all……
Some background, my wife and I would really love to start storing stuff away, we are in our 50’s so not that young anymore and are renting on one wage, so its pretty hard.
Does anyone know of good reliable people who may be doing this [ prepping] in NZ or Australia ? I am in NZ for now, I feel like a oddball out here, we maybe at the end of the world so to speak, but I can assure you we have the same problems here as others do, the worst though is that the population here is so small (5 million ) in a land area the size of the UK { NZ is about 2,000 miles long and no wider than 100 miles wide at the widest point ), also nearly all our stuff for prepping comes from the USA or UK and sadly the shipping to here is pretty horrid price wise.
The NZ dollar is now 63 cents against the USD and going down, so any ideas would be appreciated ! people here are scared to reach out to others who feel the same way, my parents are both Euro so they instilled in me growing up to never trust the State or the organs of the State ( Police ).
And sadly my observations of where the Politicians in the West are going is bearing out my cautious distrust of them.
sorry for my rambling ! any questions please ask I am sure I forgot some things .
Welcome. I’m sure there are a few from NZ that come here. Now you have introduced yourself they may contact you via the form. Introduce yourself there if you have not already.
Good luck and I would suggest you read the articles here. Most of prepping is mindset and adaptability. Money is good but no substitute for adapting and making your own way. Just think who you would rather have with you, Bill Gates or Bear Grylls.