Oliver Dowden advises us to "stock up" but is anyone listening?

Dead cat tactics by Dowden to divert from whats really going on in government.

Has a war been declared?

I'm out in the sticks a bit and we get odd power cuts so I've got plenty of candles, matches, a gas camping stove, batteries, tinned food, long life milk etc. And some (not a lot) cash in the house in case of cyber attacks on banks
I'm a bit paranoid.

I always have torches, candles, firewood, and plenty of tinned foods in the house. Also have a wee calor gas cooker (but would struggle to get it working!) Also always have some cash. Live in a rural area and think it could easily be cut off in bad weather (in fact last week my son turned up in the landrover to take me to work as am up a steep hill and there is no way my car could have made it). In the last house we were cut off on a few occasions - drifts several feet deep which we just couldn't get through even though main road two miles away was fine. Ran out of chocolate and was forced to have the cooking chocolate on one occasion! This has reminded me to pick up a couple of cartons of uht milk tomorrow.

I have the seige mentality !
I always keep supplies of candles and tinned goods even if it has made my kitchen cluttered .
I've been ill on and off since early August and now , for over a month so I'm glad to have emergency milk powder and tinned food .

Regarding ‘shirt button!’

Me too - I looked it up online but nothing in the slang dictionary…

Shirt button. Brilliant

Best put an order in to Laithwaites, cannot be left without wine or champagne 🍾🍷

Callistemon21

We've got candles, petrol coupons from the 1970s, a very old Christmas pudding in the cupboard, together with a tin of custard and the chocolate I bought for the DGC.

Ah you'll be fine then

I have enough of everything but wrt the russian cyber attacks, I suppose the reservoirs would be an easy target as everything is computerised now. I already have water purifying tabs so I will connect up one of my big water butts as they are empty down to the taps. I can be completely self-sufficient when I have done that.

We will ever de- camp to the motohome where we have central heating and satellite tv. As long as the sun shines we’ll be ok for power with the solar panels.
If it doesn’t we’ll de-camp to a friends boat, all mod cons off grid.

We have an oiled fired AGA,so as long as we can get oil were are alright but Hutti rebels in the Red Sea! We have a log burner in the lounge which at a push you could put a non-electric kettle on though burn smokeless fuel to save the environment.
Sellafield is just on the other side of the mountains. They are meant to be vulnerable to AI attacks from Russia and China. I think we are finished.
I can remember my father saying this when my mother had come in from some meeting when I was small.
We've been without water for days when some pipes broke and had to go to a collection centre for it and we're still waiting for the trees near power lines to be felled.
The bliss of living in the British countryside, yet nothing to what they are having to deal with in the Gaza Strip.

Urmstongran

Would shirt button have meant "unimaginatively conventional"? That was the only reference I could find.

Stocking up on dog food is one thing I hadn’t done, but as I was lying in bed last night thinking about being prepared I realised our lives would be hell if we run out - unlike us, I can’t just give the dog anything we’ve got in the freezer or cupboards. Rectified this morning when I went shopping.

We also make sure we have plenty of cash always - and full tanks in the cars.

Germanshepherdsmum

How would you withdraw cash without a card though? Unless of course you have a bank branch (none round here now) where you can present a cheque made out to Cash.

I was thinking more in terms of always having a few notes and coins in your purse, as we used to do at one time.

Not huge amounts - but enough to buy bread and some tins of food, etc.

I keep about £40 or maybe a bit less in my wallet - after a small local supermarket had some kind of problem whilst I was shopping a while back. I'd already loaded up. I thought the tills wouldn't work without electricity but apparently they have a spring-loaded mechanism which allows them to be opened manually. Anyway, I was able to buy the essentials.

We've got candles, petrol coupons from the 1970s, a very old Christmas pudding in the cupboard, together with a tin of custard and the chocolate I bought for the DGC.

Also living in rural Wiltshire. In the past the electricity has been off for 8 hours. So last year we bought a generator. Last month we were without power for a few hours and it was great.

I still have the candles from the crisis over the Millennium which didn’t happen. I do remember power cuts in Liverpool about 1970 and I had a gas fire and cooker so I had a lot of friends! I still like to be able to make a meal from the cupboard of tins if needed and I do always have dried soup mix in for slow soups.

For Urmston, calling a politician a "shirt button" is an error. Shirt buttons are useful . . .

How would you withdraw cash without a card though? Unless of course you have a bank branch (none round here now) where you can present a cheque made out to Cash.

Another reason not to become a 'cashless' society.

In a cyber attack - or simply when power cuts out - your card won't work in the supermarket. As some have already discovered.

If it's only for a few hours that's one thing, but if we are without electricity for a few days, that's a whole other scenario.

We're so reliant on technology. And when it doesn't work, it affects so many aspects of the nation's and people's lives. We should keep the belt as well as the braces.

Oh dear! All my family are all-electric and so am I. I have a torch and a candle. Perhaps today I'll head for the shops with a survival list.

We are all electric too. We have a small calor gas camping stove with two rings and two calor gas heaters which we can get out in the event of a power cut.