The U.K. is prepared for nothing

Allira

Maremia

About the flooding Ambergran, one simple thing would be to ban all housing construction on flood plains.

We know that Maremia!

Why don't Planning Authorities?

They're being told to tear up the rules, aren't they?

I asked Chatgtp about environmental measures which would reduce the effects of flooding. It came up with 19, applying in different sectors.

Would any of them be implemented, by government or by subsidies, on a scale large enough to make a difference?

I personally doubt it..

Maremia

About the flooding Ambergran, one simple thing would be to ban all housing construction on flood plains.

Tell that to the local authority who have sent out a proposed new housing plan, on land near a river that has been flooded regularly.

We have been opposing/fighting a big development of 500+ houses on a flood plain down the road from us for the last 10 years, thank goodness our MP is on the side of their constituents.

Unfortunately the government is riding roughshod over the council planning department 🤷‍♀️

I wonder how many of us have enough food to last more than a few days if disaster happens.
Apparently families in the 1980s had enough food stored to last over a week. Now it's only 2 days.
If Russia decides to cut our cables and we have no internet no food would be ordered and we would soon run out.

Do you think that is why they are so often in that region?

AmberGran

Flooding is another prime example. I was reading recently that in the next 20 years we can expect to lose much of our coastline but I never see it being discussed anywhere apart from a few science articles. Apart from coastal erosion more and more areas inland are now flooding regularly but I haven't seen any discussion about that either. Even the Thames barrier is apparently at risk now.

Very true. Prevention of flooding is not high on anyone’s agenda yet it is a real, ever-increasing threat.

Not complacency, it is sheer incompetence and bureacracy.

A friend is getting her central heating system replaced under a government/energy company scheme. The company undertaking the work come from a town 100 miles away, not even on a direct motorway route. No doubt under some government tendering system.

All gas heating installers have to be part of the Gas Safe scheme so qualified and monitored. Why couldn't a local company have been used to do the work. I would bet a penny to a pound that within a 20 mile radius there will probably be anything between 20 to 100 such installations under this scheme. Say one installer in each local authority area.

Reduced travel time and costs and the installer close at hand if there are any teething problems.

This is only one example, of these inefficient incompetent schemes we dream up and fail with. Remember David Cameron's Green Deal? that collapsed under incompetent firms bidding and getting work for jobs they could not do.

Read the report on what went wrong with COVID. That was a government that thought incompetence was something to be proud of.

Our local authority has built flood gardens near us and they have built defences on the river Roding.
Some councils are doing good work on this.

Domestic incompetence is disastrous but when it comes from dealing with threats outside of our borders it is beyond frightening.

Allira

Maremia

About the flooding Ambergran, one simple thing would be to ban all housing construction on flood plains.

We know that Maremia!

Why don't Planning Authorities?

"brown envelopes" maybe???

As in planning permission given when it shouldn't be.

I've seen building on floodplains done myself on the one hand. In another location I can think of = I've seen planning permission given to one household and they've quite openly said that it wouldnt receive permission for the exact same thing for another household.

Quite apart from floodplains - what about farming land being sacrificed to something like solar panels built on it? That when our population is still increasing.

If there's one thing that makes enormous sense to me = it's as well for a country/any country (including ours) to be as self-sufficient as possible re food.

Never rely on anyone/any country else for something you can/should deal with yourself.

Meanwhile at least some people where I am now can see this and also believe in doing what we can towards being food self-sufficient. I've already got the Christmas present on the way for a friend of mine that runs one of these local foodgrowing schemes - focusing on us being aware re wild grains more.

I think this is where Keir Starmer has done well to create and maintain such good relationships with other European leaders in such a short time. (I think perhaps we see this more clearly from the other side of the channel). Macron and Starmer in particular, seem to work closely together on strategic issues and this seems very positive in the light of the threats that face us.
I know some people will scoff about "never here Keir", but sometimes you have to consider the bigger picture.

Starmer has rebuilt a lot bridges with EU, being united in adversity over Ukraine has been the prime reason. When it comes to trade little has changed, until we accept their rules there will be slow progress.

Farming in the UK is at a low ebb, food production is becoming a dirty word because there is just no return on investment. The Trump tariffs ensure that there is little chance of any price revival, environmental payments have been cut, no reason for any optimism.

What strategic issues? Macron has done nothing to confront the illegal migrant situation, despite receiving a great deal of money to do so. We haven't forgotten the less than diplomatic speech he made after his state visit either.

AGAA4

I wonder how many of us have enough food to last more than a few days if disaster happens.
Apparently families in the 1980s had enough food stored to last over a week. Now it's only 2 days.
If Russia decides to cut our cables and we have no internet no food would be ordered and we would soon run out.

I was wondering along those lines too.

While some people have neither the money nor the space to buy and store an 'emergency' stock of food, many could if they wanted to or could be bothered.

Many dried and tinned foods will last for years, so as long as people pay attention to safe use-by dates and always use the oldest first, none of the stored food should ever end up wasted.

There is a lot that is totally out of our control, but being prepared for a breakdown in the food supply shouldn't be one of them for everyone, so I hope that those with the means to do it actually take some steps to prepare for this scenario themselves, especially those who have already given it enough thought to realize that this is a major issue. We can't, or shouldn't, expect the authorities to to all our thinking and planning for us if we are capable of doing it ourselves.

I agree Oldnproud, the Covid shutdowns revealed just how unprepared some people are, and how they panic at the slightest hint of a shortage. There are government preparedness guidelines which people may laugh at and dismiss as irrelevant, but there’s a very high chance that we will need them at some point.

Quite apart from floodplains - what about farming land being sacrificed to something like solar panels built on it?

That deserves a thread of it's own!

Why are these enormous solar farms allowed when planners could insist on solar panels bring put on every new building, factory, car park and more subsidies given to existing owners for solar panels?

Excuse typos

Cadenza123

I think that the powers that be are only interested in the short term. How can we give enough sops to the electorate so they will vote us in next time? Most seem to be only interested in self promotion and enrichment. I also think the perpetual quest for growth is ridiculous. The planet and it's resources are finite and we need to recognise it and act accordingly.

This is the inherent problem with democracy.
A government like China's can be so much more effective in a disaster, and so much more motivated to consider the long -term (crisis planning, climate-change initiatives) as they will benefit from the work put in now & won't suffer from hard, unpopular but neccessary decisions.

I'm glad I live in the UK not a dictatorship, but democratic systems like ours are not without drawbacks. They make unified international initiatives harder too.

Climate change is making a big difference to our food production. I heard a grower on the radio saying that we will need miles of poly tunnels in future because changeable weather and flooding will make growing food difficult and expensive.
"A recent (2023) NFU report says the UK is 62% self-sufficient in food but some sectors are in decline:
For example, the UK’s self-sufficiency in fresh vegetables – key in supporting the health of our nation – is at its lowest since records began in 1988 at 53%.
This year (2024), farmers and growers have experienced some of the wettest winters and springs on record which has put untold pressure on food production and contributed to a collapse in farm business confidence, causing a dramatic decline in the area planted of cereals for the 2024 harvest."

I can't help thinking that many younger generations than us will have trouble getting used to the kind of diet that was normal in the 1960s and the cost of processed food will be unaffordable.

Other problems are the lack of labour for farming and the cost of imports and the fact that other countries are struggling with climate change which is affecting food production elsewhere. If anything needs advance planning it is mitigating the effects of climate change but there appears to be little central planning that makes sense as a whole. The future is grim.

We have already got miles of poly tunnels they make production much less weather dependant, not just rain but sun as well it also makes harvesting easier.

The main reason production falling is supermarket price pressure and independant growers just can’t fulfill contract terms wanting continuity of supply. The only growers that can do that are international companies, growing in different countries where low cost labour is available. We have one operating in this area who is importing from the Gambia at present.

It’s a global market there isn’t going to be any reversal of that. A few independant growers will struggle on supplying farm shops etc, mainstream production will be international.

Many of us over here in West Wales are heading in the direction of permaculture and perennial plants. Looks like the future to me.

What I've not forgotten is - many years back now (we're talking decades) - watching a tv programme that was all about permaculture and I do remember a two person household who only had a large balcony and yet they were producing a rather high proportion of their greengrocery for themselves - vague idea it was in the direction of 80%. Would love to rewatch that programme now all these years later - if anyone knows what I mean and it's up there on YouTube.

That programme finished with me quite convinced it's the way to go and certainly individual households growing what they can. Cue for bookshelves worth of books about permaculture, square foot gardening, perennials and people who visit me wanting a tour of inspection of my garden as far as I've been able to get to date.

Pleased to see that, after my previously "concrete garden" that made my heart sink when I bought the house (but there wasn't much to choose from here) the garden behind mine has been turned over to food production (complete with polytunnel) and the one behind them has now just changed to food production. Cue for a slogan - We're Working on it in Wales.

Whitewavemark2

Domestic incompetence is disastrous but when it comes from dealing with threats outside of our borders it is beyond frightening.

Same people behind the incompetence whether domesstic or foreign.

M0nica

Whitewavemark2

Domestic incompetence is disastrous but when it comes from dealing with threats outside of our borders it is beyond frightening.

Same people behind the incompetence whether domesstic or foreign.

For sure.

I grow quite a lot of fruit and vegetables in my garden probably half, but no meat which we buy.
Father told us about how bad it was in the 1930s and WW2 but they lived in a village with a large garden, they kept chickens and caught rabbits, bartering with neighbours. They lived well but they had no money because all of it was spent on rent and other essentials

I really dont see that being a realistic way of feeding the IK population