Are we ready if there is a National Emergency?

It is good to know that this is being taken seriously where it needs to be.

There will be very little that ordinary people can do beyond Boy Scout basics and there is already copious advice at that level for those who want it. So I think that a televised briefing as envisaged will just cause general alarm and demands for services that won’t be forthcoming.

For the elderly, one request might be for a magic pill so that when the emergency happens we can if we wish put ourselves beyond reach of further harm.

I’d like to think past events have made us more aware of our shortcomings and unpreparedness.

However I doubt it, sadly.

We will run around like headless chickens once again when ‘something’ strikes.

I never saw a report of that in the news anywhere!!!!!

Who called this meeting? Who exactly came to it? Is this another exercise similar to the one about a "possible Lockdown at some point" that funnily enough happened not that long before they did call a Lockdown (tries to remember the name I've heard bandied around for "Project - lets have another go at the people we are supposed to represent"). Isn't it "Project Pegasus" if I recall aright?

Im sorry but it seems a bit of a word salad to me.

What exactly do they want this emergency briefing to say in terms of what they want ordinary people to do??

There is a YouTube, I haven’t watched it, merely googled.

I watched the Briefing on YouTube and am suspicious there's been nothing in the News about the disturbing facts laid bare.

I await to see if the petition/letter the public are being urged to sign to publicise the frightening findings are released nationwide. It all smacks of 'nanny state' to me

I'm stocking up on cheap tinned food before the prices go up...

I think that GN is ahead of the curve on this one. There was a thread not long ago recognising the fact that the U.K. is not prepared.

Iv'e just watched Chris Packham's speech opening the meeting, which took it off to a good start.

I am stopping now and going to bed - The facts and figures can wait for tomorrow, and I don't intend to watch it in large chunks and risk losing focus on what is being said.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=2-PFKT1SNc4

Fossil fuel emergency

There isn’t an emergency in the availability of fossil fuels fuels there is proven resources for a century and beyond. The risk is some kind of political or warfare crisis causing restrictions and price increases. That affects inflation and is balanced by wage and benefit increases. Currently the UK is moving to nuclear and renewable energy, probably not fast enough but that can be changed if needed.

Climate change, we need to decide which is more important food security or environmental enhancement, because if food imports were ever restricted the U.K. would be vulnerable immediately. Floods and drought will happen periodically we can’t control that but we can build more reservoirs and enlarge rivers and other watercourses to remove the water faster.

Apart from migrants there isn’t a risk of the UK being invaded but the impotence of Europe countering Russia in Ukraine is encouraging Russia to be aggressive, Putin sees us as really weak that is not good.

There's not just a potential climate emergency, there is also a distinct possibility of a financial emergency in the foreseeable future. Stock markets are going crazy and private debt is at a very high level. It would be as well to be prepared for crash which has far reaching effects. Like the 1920s or the 2008 GFC.

We haven’t recovered from 2008 yet, which is why we are seeing so much division etc. another crash will push us over the edge politically speaking I think.

There are all sorts of possible emergencies including ones we can't predict but the one that concerns me most immediately is the risk of Farage and Reform becoming the next government.

We complained about austerity ten yrs ago but then along came Brexit, Covid and Ukraine, which stopped any recovery in its tracks. We had no reserves to help, now we have even less

The lack of investment in public infrastructure is a longstanding one, and it will take many years to bring it up to a standard which would prepare the UK for the future.

My own take = things are going to get steadily worse financially for Britain. Already it's necessary for us, on an individual basis, to forget about many aspects of what are (or used to be) our public sector - because it's too bad and/or delayed and/or totally inaccessible.

I wouldnt be surprised if we don't get a noticeable "financial crash" situation again pretty soon now I'm afraid.

Personally - I've been getting everything/stocking up/starting to grow some food for myself....because I don't like the look of the way things are going.

I do wonder if they will start up a major war again soon and Britain getting involved. I'd certainly be interested in knowing how the chances of another major war were seen (and when) just before World War 2. I still think there would have been people who would have "seen it coming" just after the end of WW1, a noticeable number who saw it coming in the early 1930s and some who didnt see it coming until That Announcement on the radio. I'm not sure which of those first two groups I would have been in in the event - the "seen it coming in 1918" or "seen it coming in the 1930s" group. I just know I wouldnt have been in the 3rd group...but beyond that...I dont know.

Difficult to tell/to see one's way through everything and the way Big Bad News stuff gets used to push Society in the direction those above our national governments want things to go - as so many give up analysing and deciding for themselves and "take our governments word" for things. Scare people enough and many give up thinking/deciding for themselves personally - look at what happened 2020 onwards after all....

I have not atched all of the Youtube video yet (there are three hours of it!) but those taking part don't seem to me to be messengers from "above our national government" They are people who have been experiencing climate change, gathering data and analysing it, and projecting the future if it continues with no reversal to develop as it has over the last years with no reversal.

watched, not atched, and I have duplicated "with no reversal"

It always looks right until after pressing the "post" button.

Perhaps they are unaware of this

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civil_Contingencies_Act_2004

Or the numerous local Resilience groups that exist and train.

I have seen these in action twice and been hugely impressed by the speed and co-ordination deployed by multiple agencies.

The first example that came to my attention was during the Foot and Mouth Crisis. Family member was instantly called from his full time (vet) employment in the Highlands, to serve the Min of Ag at Lockerbie near the borders. In 1988 PanAM 103 crashed onto Lockerbie, and in the long terrible aftermath, the community became expert in disaster-resilience. In 2001 , when F and M reached Scotland in a farm near Lockerbie, the town became the centre for Scottish Govt response. . Family member arrived with zero notice and found he'd been provided with accommodation, meals, vehicle, driver, full protective gear and a contingent of army soldiers who followed him from farm to farm, killing and burning as he identified and condemned infected herds. Despite that devastating local stress in a farming area, the level of practical support by locals was astonishing. Every night , he reuturned exhausted, was fed, then his contaminated vehicle, every stitch of clothes and protective gear were collected for sterilisation and a clean set arrived next morning. It was considerably thanks to Lockerbie's experience in disaster-management, that Scotland handled the FM epidemic faster and more effectively than other parts of UK.

In 9/11, some of that trained experienced team from Scotland was despatched to help.

The second instance of local resilience was in March 2013 a freak snowstorm in West Scotland completely
destroyed the mainland pylons serving the under sea cable to the whole of the island of Arran (total blackout) and dumped
up to 10 ft of snow on parts of it; houses were buried to roof depth, roads impassable, no power whatever. Many of the islands telegraph poles and cables had also come down, so no landline phones service. There is no mains gas, no airfield.
There was a huge effort by the local community; plus hundreds of power engineers drafted from all over UK; bringing emergency generators and the fuel to run them. It took six days to connect all homes to the generators (and two months longer, before the mains netword was rebuilt and reconnected). The govt delivered emergency kitchens and cooks (and food) to feed the emergency workers and locals who had no working stoves.. Ever since then, Arran local services have done regular resilience/emergency training involving the police, mountain rescue, medical services, and local community.

Spreading alarm makes people afraid. Frightened people look for someone to blame - often that turns out to be 'strangers'. This meeting seems calculated to whip up fear and anger - never a good idea.
All in favour of measures to ensure our national and personal resources are set to improve our health, strengthen community organisation, and improve our resilience against cyber and real world aggression.

Also did not know anything about National Emergency Plan either.

As long as London and South East if looked after. I really don't think they could give a shit about anywhere else.

WithNobsOnIt

Also did not know anything about National Emergency Plan either.

As long as London and South East if looked after. I really don't think they could give a shit about anywhere else.

I don’t think Arran is in London or the SE?

This petition is privately funded by two brothers, Nick and Simon Aldridge, described as “climate funders and communicators, with a background in business. Tbey previously ran a roof tile manufacturing business.
They fund climate change communication initiatives in an attempt to shift/manipulate public and political will.
Whether this is another arm of the government ‘nudge unit’ , similar to the covid years, remains to be seen.

I don't know if it's the cynicism of older age, but I also think that scaring people is a tactic designed to make us accept authoritarianism, and dividing us into silly groups (Boomers, benefit scroungers, 'lefties', millionaire pensioners, Millenials etc) is warming us up to care less about people supposedly 'not like us'. It's been happening for years now, and tbh I can't be bothered to argue any more.

I agree with Cariad that we need to be ready for a possible war, but what form that will take I don't know, and in any case I am not fit to fight, so can't prepare anyway. Economically I doubt there is much to be done either - used fivers under the mattress just lose value because of inflation. If banks can be targeted it's not safe to keep it there either, and in any case, if bread cost £500 a loaf it doesn't really matter where we keep it as it will run out PDQ.

I would have felt differently when I was young, but these days I tend to think that all we can reasonably do is live for today and be as happy as we can while we can. If we can help others to be happy along the way, so much the better. That doesn't mean I'm giving up - I will always do what I am able to - it just means I am worrying less and becoming more fatalistic.

If it became available, I'd put my name down for the winterwhite pill, on a 'just in case' basis though. I think a more probable threat is that even without a war we will get a dictatorship government that puts any of the ones we've lived through in the shade. I don't want to be here to see that happen.