UK advised to stockpile food as Russian Attack fears grow

I bought a power bank in case of such a scenario, but a few months later received an email saying the model I had bought was being recalled over safety fears, risk of fire etc. The brand was Anker, which I thought seemed a reputable brand, but I found out that there was another recall last year. I have been offered a gift card to spend on their website, but I am reluctant to buy another one now. It felt like I had a ticking time bomb in the house. Fortunately it was easy to dispose of the item safely - EE stores accept them, even if not purchased there.

Most of that fancy bottled water is full of micro plastics

MT62

Most of that fancy bottled water is full of micro plastics

Yes, but if the choice is between drinking and cooking with rainwater, or ingesting a few microplastics for a week or two, which would you prefer? Personally, I'd risk the microplastics, although I also have a pack of water purifing tablets in my emergency box 🆘.

Well you said it Greyfur ‘we are a tiny island’ so why do we keep taking all these undocumented people?

People have enough trouble trying to get more than one months supply of medication I can't see any GP or pharmacist letting us have three months! If everyone tries that there will be shortages. As for stockpiling food most freezer advise not to keep stuff frozen for more than a year and packet stuff is usually end dated a year anyway. So tins have to be safest.

Oh plastic for sure doodle 🤣

The basics for survival are Food, Fuel and Shelter.
And Meds for many of us.

We lived on rainwater when we were down at the beach for years. Mind you it was fairly remote so perhaps the pollutants weren’t so obvious. We did get the odd leaf and dead mosquito ,though. Many places still don’t have town water here anyway when you leave the big cities. The gardens and food grows from it, we eat the crops, what’s the difference?

An article in BBC online this morning describing a bomb shelter facility in Canada being sold as revamped luxury prepper condos.

Nothing like scaremongering and panic buying....eh!

We’re older anyway, it’s the young ones who would suffer most. Live your lives, can’t change things.

Casdon

That’s why the advice is to keep a supply of bottled water to last a few days.

One big reason not to change to a combi boiler. Since we did, several low water pressure events have left us pretty much without

The only preparation I have is water purification tablets and several bags of dry food for the cats.

^ ... the greatest risk is not of open warfare. It’s far more likely that infrastructure will be targeted, underwater cables cut, water supplies polluted, drone attacks on power stations, etc. etc.^

Agree with this, but extreme weather conditions is another problem.

Almost everything now is computerised and it really wouldn't take a lot to close almost everything down. In 2024 the GPS systems used by some Canadian farmers were confused by a major geo-magnetic storm, preventing them from planting. The same problem affected the US in 2025. Not a small thing considering the amount of wheat and other grains these countries supply to keep the world fed.

Spain, Morocco and Portugal have suffered major floods over the last couple of years that have devastated many fruit farms. Those same areas are now suffering from drought. A lot of our fresh fruit and veg comes from these areas so supplies will be down and what we get will be expensive.

We have a global pantry now. Over a quarter of British farms have closed down in the last 20 years so we supply less than ever before. Any extended fuel shortages that stop shipping or air freight, or the closing of shipping lanes or flight paths would seriously disrupt our food supplies. It wouldn't take a world war or nuclear catastrophe, just a tantrum in the wrong place at the wrong time and we could all be wishing we'd prepped a bit better.

Underwater cables - I always tell people to get paper copies of important stuff.

Cossy

* gas hob! (Though dear husband might think gas gob a better description of me!)

Cossy...I'll have to remember that one..made me laugh